Ask HN: Why does the Segway look so uncool? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why does the Segway look so uncool?

7 pointsMockapapella6 comments

I know this is a subjective thing, but I think it could spark a good discussion on UX.

When someone rides a segway they tend to not look cool, despite the fact that they're actually pretty fun to ride around. Contrast this with hoverboards which are generally cooler looking than a segway while still maintaining the same basic function. There's also other modes of transportation like bikes, roller blades, vehicles, and running that are generally seen as being cooler than riding a segway. One can definitely look uncool while using these other modes of transportation, but it's easier to look uncool on a segway than it is with any of those.

So I guess my question boils down to this: What design decisions are a part of the segway that make it so easy to look uncool when compared to other modes of transportation?

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The Segway was first and they figured they'd be able to keep competitors away with patents. That worked for a while and then the patents expired. I don't think they believed that "looking cool" was going to make a difference for adoption and they probably believed that they needed the central stalk for safety.

The Segway was vulnerable from at least two fronts. On one hand you could make something that looks like a Segway but has four wheels and provides the same experience without the technology. Alternately there are all the devices that are similar but much smaller, simpler and cheaper. For that matter there are electric bikes and other things that don't self-balance but are good options to get around. (I was looking at an e-bike the other day that uses structural batteries and other tech which is still beyond state of the art for e-cars.)

They were hung up on their idea of what it was going to be and never tried developing alternatives when they were still protected by patents. I think they never really understood why their product failed in the marketplace.

I grew up in Manchester, NH where the Segway was invented and went back there a few times when it was being test marketed. I'd see people going up a hill on it, going down the sidewalk and forcing pedestrians off the sidewalk, and the cops cruising around behind the K-Mart looking right out of Demolition Man.

It was kinda cool but obviously not a revolution and how they couldn't see that was beyond me. For one thing it doesn't give the protection from the elements which is an important attribute cars have if you live in a place like the Northeast U.S. where winter and rain are a part of life.

“I grew up in Manchester, NH where the Segway was invented and went back there a few times when it was being test marketed.”

Same here!

We have a collective bio-aesthetic unconscious (stay with me ...) that reflexively informs our immediate reactions to certain shapes. Consider that many children are born terrified of snakes and spiders, despite never being informed that they are dangerous. Clearly there is some evolutionary-psychological benefit to this because many snakes and spiders are fatally dangerous, but how can children know this without a zoology class?[a] There must be something about there shape alone that triggers something in us.

Some cars are more aesthetic than others. Many people would describe a Jaguar as "sleek" or "sexy." A Model T is a cool car, but it's shape clearly has a different appeal. It's more "clean" or "refined " Could it be that the silouhette of a smooth line with a arched back and slightly raised hind resembles an actual jaguar ready to pounce? Many people describe big cats as similarly "sleek."

The point being that a person on a Segway looks like a tree sliding it's way horizontally along the landscape. That's simply an awkward sight to behold, and it's due to our inborn, reflexive reactions to certain shapes.

[a] Cats are also reflexively terrified of snake-like objects, like cucumbers. https://youtu.be/2acZIOSV9LY

There is fairly little biomechanical harmony on display - even though the leaning aspect is probably fairly biomechanically-feedback regulated, humans are a mesh of muscles that can move independently very fluidly and dynamically and a super sophisticated nerve control system.

To look sleek you'd want something that had a couple dozen parameters w.r.t. muscle geometry, rather than just that basically boils down to a single 'theta' representing lean angle.

Basically it because it bottlenecks fluidity of movement so it's like a fluidity straitjacket rather than an exoskeleton. Low skill ceiling appears like a low skill skill.

It's a bit tricky because being properly subjective and trying to nail it with a quick internet take are at odds with each other, but here are some ideas.

- Pose is strange in terms of analog to the general evolutionary catalog of human poses; it's like the rider is delivering a tray of drinks. Leaning forward is also considered to have a conciliatory effect, as opposed to something more like the unconcerned cool effect.

- Stance is not dynamic (bicycle) or fluid (car/train riding)

- Static movement effect. The proportion of visible moving parts (size of wheels in proportion) to visible static human body parts is out of balance. Cars and most motorcycles are way better than this for example. And imagine if (armor concerns aside) an F-35 flew by, and you just saw the pilot laying there at full stretch under the canopy. It's a much different effect. In movies it's used for conveying vulnerability, e.g. stasis pods in Alien.

- High proportion, combined with no mass-thinning effect at extreme of height

- In general, this all goes against nature in a good way (that shouldn't work mechanically), but it also goes against nature in a bad way (humans look for natural looks to determine what's cool, so they give it a kind of fail)

With all that said I personally don't find the segway uncool, nor am I in line to own one...

it's very simple... the two huge tires look like balls and the rider looks like a dick, complete with helmet on top

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