Defying Gravity: The Segway in Action

by Edward B. Driscoll, Jr.
April 2002

On a cold February Manhattan morning, in the warm offices of the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller, I hopped on a Segway for the first time, that strange, two-wheeled scooter that's been the talk of the Internet for the past couple of years.

Before I did, I watched Tobe Cohen, Segway's director of marketing roll past Doric columns, antique appearing chandeliers and marble floors into a modern looking conference room, seemingly magically balanced between the two parallel wheels of the Segway. He hopped off, and adjusted the height of the handlebars to better suit my arms. I hopped onto the 24-inch wide platform. Then Cohen took his hand off the unit. For a few seconds, the Segway bucked back and forth, as he said, "you're trying to balance on it, and it's trying to balance you. Just relax." I did. The rest was incredibly intuitive.

I was standing between the two wheels, balanced like I was a few antigravity inches off the ground. Cohen explained that if I leaned forward, the Segway would move forward. If I leaned backwards, the Segway would reverse. And he pointed out the switch on the left handlebar that could be flipped to turn the unit. He then let me ride the Segway through the halls, up ramps, on several surfaces, and even over his feet.

Gary Bridge, Segway's vice president of marketing says, "my feet have been run over at least 500 times in demonstrations, and I haven't even broken the caps on my dress shoes, because we have very, very low-pressure tires."

Five Gyroscopes, Ten Processors, Two Wheels
Between those very, very low-pressure tires, Bridge says that there are "five solid-state gyroscopes (not the spinning kind) but five gyroscopes and two tilt-sensors, which do the same thing. They send their signal to ten computer processors, and it's the amount of computing power, by the way, in three normal desktop PCs. And the sensors tell it where the center of gravity is a hundred times a second. They measure the rider's center of gravity and send a signal to the computers. The computers send it to the servomotors to either move the platform forward or back, so that it's always securely underneath you."

While I narrowly avoided running into a Burson-Marsteller employee, Bridge claims that if I did, what would happen is that the control shaft would go back, which would immediately cause it to absorb that energy into the motor.

Riding the Segway was so much fun it was hard to think about technology and physics. But Segway's marketing plan is not for it to be a toy. So how practical is it? Can the Segway do more than carry a single person? What about packages? Cohen says that a bag of groceries, a briefcase or a handbag can easily be draped across the unit's handlebars. He also says that front and side mounted baskets and saddlebags are being designed for the unit. And Bridge says that Segway has a unit under development that will look much like the base unit, but without its control shaft. Instead, it will hitch to the Segway, follow its lead, and allow for much greater cargo capacity-in effect, a self-powered trailer.

Fred Astaire and Ginger: The IBOT and Segway
The Segway, in case you somehow missed the enormous amounts of hype it has generated in the past two years, is the brainchild of wunderkind inventor Dean Kamen, and is built on the breakthrough concepts of his IBOT electric wheelchair, which can 'walk' on two wheels, to raise its passenger to be eye-level with a standing person, and go up and down staircases. The Segway can't go up and down stairs, but it can balance a person between its two parallel wheels and effortlessly zip him around the neighborhood at speeds of up to 12 and a half miles per hour, three times faster than most people walk.

Kamen and his marketing experts have done a remarkable job of managing Segway's image. My father, who is in his late 70s, and can walk short distances but only with a cane, wouldn't dream of riding a scooter, motorcycle, electric car, or anything short of a hulking fossil fuel-powered Cadillac DeVille. But having seen elderly people on TV shows such as Good Morning America riding the Segway, he's intrigued by the concept. And people of his age, which Segway calls "robust seniors", are included in Segway's marketing plans. Bridge says, "We think that there's a huge market for people who can walk, but they can't walk far."

Even before its television debut, Segway's 'buzz' on the Web was all-pervasive. Sites up and down the Internet, such as the Drudge Report, kept asking "What is 'IT'?" and "What is 'Ginger'?", two of Segway's developmental code names. Rumors about the Segway's power supply abounded. Maybe it's hydrogen power, and we'd start seeing hydrogen filling stations on every corner? Maybe something even more exotic?

In the end though, Segway's power supply turns out to be good old electricity, which isn't a bad thing: it can be gotten right out of a wall socket, using the same type of three-pronged cable that a PC uses, with one hour of recharging equaling one hour of riding.

Once the unit debuted, the hype continued. On Monday, February 18, 2002, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, who has been one Segway's most enthusiastic supporters, began to auction off three prototype Segways, with the proceeds going to charity. By that Wednesday, the units quickly stood at over $60,000 each.

Of course, early adopters know that they will pay more than the mass market for a product, but that's astonishing!

Establishing the Proper Segway Etiquette
The winners of Amazon's auction will receive their Segways on April 25, 2002 at Disney World's Epcot Center. Most of the rest of us will have to wait until at least the end of 2002 for our Segways. Segway LLC is deliberately following a strategy of releasing the first units to businesses, such as Amazon.com, whose employees will use the Segways to negotiate Amazon's huge warehouses; airline personnel who have to get around enormous hangars and airports; as well as the US Post Office, and local government agencies such as police and paramedics.

Industrial Segways will ride on larger tires, and will have a 24-inch wheelbase (such as the unit I tested), unlike consumer models, which will be three inches narrower with smaller tires. Speaking of which, alternate tires will be available to allow the unit to negotiate ice and snow.

Regarding their government sales, Bridge says that the goal there is try to establish "the proper Segway etiquette: how you have to behave when you come to a crowded street."

Bridge says that Segway's fear is that if they initially sold the units to the mass market, "kids being kids, are going to do things with it that are bad, and then we're going to get blamed for it. So we won't sell to kids, until we have a very, very clear welcome on the sidewalks." Which is probably a good thing, as injury lawyers are already advertising their intentions to sue the pants and the deep pockets off of Segway when and if the inevitable accidents start to occur. By carefully educating the public, Segway may both reduce those risks, and their exposure to lawsuits.

Kamen has claimed that the Segway, with its small size, zero-space turning radius, and ease of use, will radically transform the structural design of cities, as well as people's lives. While the jury is still firmly out on both of those points, the potential is definitely there. History is filled with simple inventions that have radically transformed life, not the least of which is the automobile and Henry Ford's efforts to put one in front of everyone's home.

Will the Segway be as positive and life altering as the car? Who knows? At a minimum though, it will probably be on everyone's wish list, both young and old, come Christmas time. Don't believe me? Well, don't knock it until you've taken it for a test drive.

Edward B. Driscoll, Jr. is a consultant in the consumer electronics industry.