OT: Segway Recall

[Chris B .]

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

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030926_905.html

Perhaps this can spawn some sort of hybrid disc brake recall/helmet war? <g>

--
Chris Bird

 

[Dave Stallard]

"Chris B." wrote:
>
> "U.S. Issues Recall for Segway Scooters Because Riders Have Been Injured Falling Off Vehicle".
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030926_905.html

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

 

[Preston Crawfor]

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

 

[David Kerber]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> "Chris B." wrote:
> >
> > "U.S. Issues Recall for Segway Scooters Because Riders Have Been Injured Falling Off Vehicle".
> >
> > http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030926_905.html
>
> 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.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

 

[Dave Stallard]

Preston Crawford wrote:
>
> "Dave Stallard" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > 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