How to render the Segway Human Transporter obsolete | Hacker News Reader

How to render the Segway Human Transporter obsolete

thebestpageintheuniverse.net

"The reason for this cost: superfluous bullshit like high-voltage field-effect transistors or FETs. What the hell does a FET do? Nobody knows, but I guarantee some nerd spent months writing a graduate thesis on why it's important (and failing)."

Seriously Maddox? Try harder than that.

Yeah, that was pretty weak. But I do think he has a bit of a point; if the Segway had taken off big-time after it was introduced (or if it ever does at some point in the future), I'd fully expect 3-wheeled versions from China to be in stores for half the price inside of a month.

I know this is meant as a joke but he makes a really good point on how the messenger can influence a message. If someone you think is a genius goes on and on about how revolutionary a feature is people will often check their skepticism at the door and believe the person. For example, I can't imagine Steve Jobs still thinks the Segway will "change the way we build cities."

But when Dean Kamen was explaining how great it was to him I'll bet any amount of money he believed cities would be rebuilt around the thing

He has a point.

I imagine though that with a third wheel and a lower price tag, the segway would be even less popular. It's the 'technological marvel' element that makes the people who want them want them.

If I'm right, that doesn't take away from the point.

A friend of mine won a 4-wheeled knock-off segway in the fall and kept it in our basement and it was one of the best things that ever happened to us. We set up a little solo cup marked course and ran through it all the time.

The really cool part about it was the drifting, the wheels were kind of janky and our floor was really dusty so you could slide all over, not really possible on a segway. I imagine if you could get it going fast enough, portable enough (this thing was tremendously heavy and awkward) and rugged enough, they could be really fun.

That's still a description of a toy not something that will change the way we build cities.

The "build one" link towards the end of the posted article is much more interesting....

http://tlb.org/scooter.html

Idea: remove the handle bar and use an iPhone to control it.

With the accelerometer and the compass it wouldn't be that difficult.

Call it a Tri-pad, sell it for $999.

The accelerometer on the iPhone updates far too slowly. You'd be much better off using rate gyros.

What kind of "third wheels" have you used when creating software?

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