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Comment by joenathanone | Hacker News Reader

Also you look like a dork on a Segway, the image problem is huge, that is a problem you don’t have with a bike.

Big time. Maybe it was the fact that the styling landed it somewhere between a cheap toy and plasticky medical equipment. A very "velcro orthorpedic mall-walking shoe" kind of look. From my cultural perspective, the closest current thing to Segway-level dorky is a riding a tiny-wheeled folding bike with a huge mushroom helmet in staid business casual. Folding bikes and helmets are both fantastically useful objects— I would say more useful than a Segway to most— but they are dorky as all getout. (I'll refrain from commenting on business casual.)

The people who say "who cares if you look like a dork" either have a less-important use case for their own public-facing image than others, or exist in a cultural facet that perceives those things as more culturally acceptable. Even some people whose personal appearance is extremely professionally important— lawyers for example— can withstand looking really square because the cultural context they exist in calls for it. If a bouncer at a nightclub looked as square as a lawyer, their job would be a lot harder. A lawyer would get raked over the coals for wearing a club bouncer's poorly-tailored polyester suit. Your appearance influences most people's perception of you, and their appearance influences your perception of them, whether you care to admit it or not.

I mean, I know some people who thought google glass looked cool. I wouldn't wear google glass if it could make me fly.

Speaking of which, now that the Segways are done for, I wonder if Google Glass will overtake them as the cultural icon for dorkiness in the aughts? I heard people explain google glass as being like "a Segway for your face." I wonder if now Segways are going to be "like Google Glass you could ride."

It's called an electric chariot, thank you.

Electric Chariot sounds like a band I would have joined in High School.

I mean you look like a dork on anything. In my high school being seen on a bike was humiliating as it meant you were either too young or too poor to have a car (both uncool).

But when a lot of people decide to look like dorks for a while, that effect wears off. Everyone made fun of the e-scooters for the first few months they came out, but they’re just so darn practical, they’re not weird anymore.

This is the single most important reason the Segway never really took off. It makes the rider look lazy. Also, much too heavy to take with you across any kind of barrier. It's a 'last mile' solution with no idea about how to cover the gap between the two last miles.

Plenty of people wear ridiculous cycling gear (myself included) (helmets look especially dorky, but they're less dorky than being confined to a motorized wheelchair for the rest of your life so wear your helmets, kids.) so I don't buy that. (Nor did I buy a Segway, mind you.)

I think your right on the other part though. The Segway's target market is people that live and work and play mostly within a 1.5 mile radius. Unfortunately the original Segway was too expensive but more critically, far too big and bulky. The target market which stays within a tiny region are able to do so because it's so dense. But that density means that apartments (and stairwells and elevators) are too small to fit the original Segway. Nor did it fit well in the trunk of a car. Leaving very few buyers outside of Segway tours for tourists.

The quickest way to become a massively ridiculed cliché tourist in any European town is to take one of those Segway tours. My god I would never set foot on one of them, it's just so embarrassing.

https://cdn.getyourguide.com/img/tour_img-1062176-146.jpg

Hmm, I never even give a second glance to people taking the Segway tours in my city (Chicago). But whenever I see one in my neighborhood, 7 miles from downtown, hoo boy is it hard to not stare.

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