Toyota Announces the Winglet, Wannabe Segway Killer 227
Various gadget/toy venues are writing about the Toyota Winglet, a diminutive Segway-like personal transporter. (Toyota took over Sony's robot division a year back.) It comes in three sizes and offers about a third the speed and a quarter the range of the Segway; on the upside, it charges in an hour vs. Segway's 10 hours. Wired writes: "The Winglet is the first gadget to duplicate the celebrated, and often mocked, navigation system of the Segway Transporter."
Re:Or you could just oh I don't know (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Or you could just oh I don't know (Score:0, Interesting)
A 10km glide on a Segway gets me to work in half an hour. I can step off and start work right away without worrying about starting the day covered in sweat and having a wrinkled uniform (no showers available).
Also I can work my guts out at a physically demanding job all day, knowing I don't need to spare some energy for a bike ride home.
There is something to kill? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am going to go out on a limb and state that the Segway has almost no real legitimate use.
A bike is way more agile, and is able to cover a much wider assortment of areas.
A bike is able to travel just as fast with little effort, and can travel faster if you want to put that much power into it.
A bike doesn't need batteries.
There are health benefits from this thing called "exercise."
Now if you are talking about a battery powered vehicle that can travel on a road and get you back and forth to work, sign me up. Otherwise its simply a toy.
Perfect Market (Score:3, Interesting)
With its aging population and far more emphasis on walking than driving, Japan is the perfect market for this device.
The lower speed makes it less likely to be a nuisance/danger on the ubiquitous and heavily trafficked sidewalks and walking paths.
Also, even the largest model will fit comfortably on most trains and subway lines, making it useful for shopping/errand runs that include a segment on a mass transit system.
Those two features alone give it a fighting chance.
Re:Range (Score:2, Interesting)
Thats not the question. The real question is, "how can I sit on the couch and get somebody to come stuff my pie hole with processed chemical laden food so that I don't miss anything on the boob toob".
The Tivo was only a partial answer. I don't know if anybody saw Wall-E yet so spoiler ahead, but there are people in the future that are fat, live on hyper sleds, and do nothing but watch advertisement-laden tv while stuffing their pie holes with food. I was laughing really hard and the kids did not get it.
You're absolutely dead on though. Not enough people try and ask how they can balance their life to get an adequate amount of exercise.
Re:Range (Score:2, Interesting)
laughing takes energy
Get rid of the vertical column (Score:3, Interesting)
These vertical hold-on-to column on these things should be got rid of. Then the rider can ride like a skateboard.
It reminds me of that scene in Back to the Future X where Michael J. Fox rips the handlebars off the 50's scooter turning it into a rad 80s skateboard. Same needs to be done here.
Re:I dunno (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, here in Charlotte NC, I recently have been noticing allot of Segways being used by the local police in the downtown area, and also by park security in one of most popular parks.
Laugh if you will, but the older gentleman in the park was actually doing fairly fast laps around the park, and easily covering more area that 2 or 3 people would, even on a bike he would have gotten tired much more quickly and not have been scooting around like this.
The police in the downtown area were in a line of about 8 of them all on Segways, and I saw 1 police officer run down a taxi that happened to run a red light right in front of all 8 Segwayed police officers and watched the rather cool looking police officer (or at least he really thought he was, sun glasses and all) give the taxi driver a good talking too while he balanced with his arms crossed on his POLICE Segway.
I have no idea how long the battery lasts though and if the battery recharges quickly somewhere local, but the version both the police and the park security guys were on were more outdoors looking with off road looking tires etc.
So maybe the Segway has just not taken over the world YET.
Exactly right. (Score:1, Interesting)
I work at Segway, and can say that our sales are ramping up something amazing -- the high price of gas doesn't hurt, either. That being said, the preponderance of our customers is security: police, airport, mall, and large event (e.g., Superbowl). Second place is tourism, such as most major cities, Disney, and so forth. Bottom line is that Segway's initial vision is being re-shaped to the "real" world, and fitting in quite nicely.