The Segway, transportation of choice for mall security, is dead
Until then partner.
Loren Elliott / Getty Images
The original Segway – yes, the one we often see as security holes in shopping centers – will reach the end of the street in July.
The company confirmed the demise of the self-balancing scooter on Wednesday with a roadshow and found that the device was very durable in a saturated market. Many of the original machines are still in operation years later. In combination with the low turnover, the OG Segway 2019 only made up 1.5% of the turnover of the company. So it was time to roll the machine away.
“Segway has grown and evolved and is focusing more on consumer goods like our shared scooter business, Segway Powersports and Segway Robotics,” the company said in a statement. “This decision was not taken lightly, and although the current global pandemic affected sales and production, it was not a critical factor in our decision.”
Although the Segway was set to revolutionize mobility when it debuted in 2001, the car’s $ 5,000 price was a difficult sale. Still, it was an incredibly agile machine that self-balanced and required minimal operator movement to power the battery-powered scooter.
While the Segway, which many of us know about, will leave the world on July 15, the parent company Ninebot, to which Segway creator Dean Kamen sold the company in 2015, plans to continue developing mobility machines. At the beginning of this year it showed the new Segway S-Pod this kind looks like an egg on wheels and goes up to 24 miles an hour. As with the original Segway, no inclination is required because an operating button is used.
We welcome the original Segway. Maybe it was a bit ahead of its time.
Look at that:
Roll around on the Segway S-Pod, a self-balancing …
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First published on June 23.
