Speaking of a segway...

[robkelk]

Segway was the 'device of the future,' in the perfect moment to succeed. So why did it fail?

tl;dr: too high-tech, too expensive, too many high-profile crashes

[Labster]

Some things not mentioned here, but brought up in a recent Hacker News discussion:

We don't have infrastructure for Segways. We have sidewalks, where people want to walk 2-5 km/h, and bicycle lanes, where bicycles want to go 25 km/h, and traffic lanes, where cars want to go 40+ km/h. None of these are good for the Segway, which has a top speed around 15 km/h. The wide profile left them with nowhere to go in existing infrastructure, outside of security applications like parking lots and malls.

There was a learning curve to using the Segway. Electric scooters are dead simple to use. As a city transportation device, an electric bicycle is faster and more efficient -- and uses existing infrastructure. So they essentially got out-competed in most similar markets based on features alone and ignoring the Segway's high price.

The quality of a Segway was really high -- so high that they didn't sell any new ones to existing customers. It was built with redundant systems for safety, which commodity e-bikes and e-scooters don't need. Once the best markets were saturated -- security and disability mobility -- there was nowhere to grow.

[Rajvik]

add to that, there was no use for them, (unlike E-bikes and scooters) in the more rural areas. their only place of use was in urban areas

[Black Aeronaut]

I think that what was really the final nail in the coffin was when one of the company owners was killed in an accident involving one of the off-road models. Apparently he rode it right over a cliff and into a ravine.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39377851/ns/wo...liff-dies/

[Star Ranger4]

.... That boggles the mind, BA