OT: Segway Recall

Chris B. said:

"U.S. Issues Recall for Segway Scooters Because Riders Have Been Injured Falling Off Vehicle".

abcnews.go.comap20030926 905.htmlOpen ↗

I'm really surprised that they didn't think of that one in advance. If the thing depends on the
gyros to be safe, and the gyros depend on battery power to work, what happens when the batteries run
out? Oops. It seems so well engineered in other ways (and for the price, it had better be). You
could buy a hell of a nice bike for the price of a Segway.

Dave

"Dave Stallard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm really surprised that they didn't think of that one in advance. If the thing depends on the
gyros to be safe, and the gyros depend on battery power to work, what happens when the batteries
run out? Oops. It seems so well engineered in other ways (and for the price, it had better be).
You could buy a hell of a nice bike for the price of a Segway.

That's why I find this humorous. My problem with the Segway from the start has been just the very
notion of relying on a machine to do what (assuming you're able-bodied) you should be able to do on
your own. Like walk or bike. So to me this is hilarious because it totally is a "duh" type of thing.
I may "bonk", but I don't generally tip over and crash when I do.

Preston

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Chris B. said:

"U.S. Issues Recall for Segway Scooters Because Riders Have Been Injured Falling Off Vehicle".

abcnews.go.comap20030926 905.htmlOpen ↗

I'm really surprised that they didn't think of that one in advance. If the thing depends on the
gyros to be safe, and the gyros depend on battery power to work, what happens when the batteries
run out? Oops.

They probably did consider this, but cut it a little too close in order to try to maximize their
battery runtime. If you read the article carefully, they said the problem was when there was an
unusually high power demand, such as hitting an obstacle or accelerating quickly. I imagine all
they're going to do is raise the battery charge-level threshold at which they shut it down
completely, to leave themselves a little more margin for higher power requirements near the bottom
of the battery discharge cycle.

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Preston Crawford said:

"Dave Stallard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm really surprised that they didn't think of that one in advance. If the thing depends on the
gyros to be safe, and the gyros depend on battery power to work, what happens when the batteries
run out? Oops. It seems so well engineered in other ways (and for the price, it had better be).
You could buy a hell of a nice bike for the price of a Segway.

That's why I find this humorous. My problem with the Segway from the start has been just the very
notion of relying on a machine to do what (assuming you're able-bodied) you should be able to do
on your own. Like walk or bike. So to me this is hilarious because it totally is a "duh" type of
thing. I may "bonk", but I don't generally tip over and crash when I do.

Everyone who has ridden one reports that they are insanely fun to ride. That would be my only
attraction to it. I certainly can't imagine designing cities around it (if that's what Jobs
actually said).

Dave