Segway to Where?

Without question, Dean Kamen's Segway (the personal mobility machine formerly known as "Ginger" or "It") is a 21st century engineering tour de force, and its also a heck of a lot of fun to drive. You can tell that from the beaming smiles of the folks lucky enough to get their hands on one.

The blue jeans-clad Kamen and his Segway team were on hand with a half dozen of his two-wheel EVs at the 2002 National Clean Cities conference in Oklahoma City last month. They not only demonstrated the device, but also allowed hundreds of the conference goers to try their hand at operating one in a large room adjacent to the exhibit hall. I was one of the first in line to give it a go and here's what I learned.

The Segway comes in two basic models, an HT model with larger wheels than the smaller, soon-to-be-released consumer version. The HT model itself is available in an "i" and "e" version, the former for maximum range and terrain, the later for hauling cargo. The HT is designed for use by warehouse workers, parts runners, mail carriers, the policeman on a beat. It's going price ranges from $8,000 to $10,000, the price of a small car, a couple NEVs or 80 cheap bicycles.

It weighs just 83 pounds (38kg) and has a range of about 17 miles on its NiHM battery pack. The top speed can be programmed into the electronic key. The versions available for the Ride & Drive in Oklahoma were limited to 5 mph. Top speed is 12.5 mph, about the average speed of traffic in downtown Tokyo or Manhattan.

According to the Segway web site, the company designed the machine to take up no more room than the average human, about 3.2 square feet. And by Kamen's account, Segway is even more efficient than a human. He estimates the average human being uses about 100 watts of energy to walk, while the Segway uses 40.

The less expensive consumer version is slated to go on sale in late 2002. It resembles the HT model in virtually every way except the wheels are somewhat smaller and I understand it will come with NiCad batteries instead of NiMH.

So, what's it like to "drive" one?

It's surprisingly easy and requires virtually no effort. About 60 seconds of instruction is all that's needed. You step up on the platform, which is about 8 inches off the ground.

Segway's simple controls

The key thing to remember about driving the Segway is to not think about it! Segway's engineers designed the device with two liquid sensors and five solid state gyroscopes. The system is so sensitive that it instantly detects the slightest shift in your weight. To go forward, you don't actually lean, you just "think" forward and the Segway responds. The same applies to going backward or stopping. You simply "think" backward or stop and the machine complies.

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