The production of the standing scooter is discontinued. Who were the ugly vehicles meant for?
Bad tongues would say that these tourists are too lazy to do the sightseeing on foot.
Foto: Getty Images
Segway is synonymous with that two-wheeled, battery-powered, self-balancing standing vehicle, mostly, but not always, with a handrail that overturned President George W. Bush in 2003 (no kidding!). In 2015, one knocked over sprinter Usain Bolt on his Olympic winning lap, and one had driven British Segway company owner James Heselden out of a cliff in 2010 with a fatal outcome. Large numbers of Segway scooters had to be called back to the factory shortly after they were introduced because they sometimes stopped abruptly when the battery was weak.
In 2003, the then US President George W. Bush falls from the Segway.
Photo: Keystone
Who the vehicles were for was always unclear. In the meantime, they are operated by obese people and / or orderly personnel who wear helmets while standing and verbally inflate their vultures for «personal transport». Something like this favors bad reputation. In inner-city streetscapes, Segway is either a silly single file on wheels that are too small or jittery, it is another, rather ugly tourist attitude, as superfluous as selfie sticks. But Segway is now history.
The production of the scooters, whose name is derived from the English “segue” (transition), will be discontinued on July 15th. The decision was not an easy one, says Judy Cai, president of the Chinese company Ninebot, to which Segway now belongs.
If you want to cry a few crocodile tears, you can watch the videos in the «Segway Fails» category on YouTube. Steve Jobs had said the devices were abacuses for walking, that they would become as important as computers. It was always an exaggeration.
Basically, the scooter museum shopper remained for loin. They were too expensive, too heavy and cumbersome, too overwhelmed with expectations, to park anywhere, or even to recharge. And somehow it also always remained unclear on which urban terrain you should actually move: street? Pavement? Indoor in hospitals, shopping malls, airports, trade fairs?
No, unlike e-bikes, Segways have never been cool. Only 140,000 pieces were sold in the 19 Segway years, now they belong to the Technikmuseum.
