Segway's wild and bumpy history, explained

I think it's time we have to do something there or visit it does it plan sir this is a story about the Segway this is the world's first self balancing human transporting all the knowledge that went into knowing how to walk is transferred to this machine upon its unveiling in 2001 the Segway human transporters hype was similar to today's hype around Tesla with this same message this product is going to revolutionize transportation forever I believe the Segway HT will do for walking what the calculator did a pad and pencil to get there quicker you'll go further anywhere people walk anywhere people Segway was Dean came and solution to an old challenge it's called the last mile it's the inefficiency inherent in getting from the train station to your front door from a bus stop to your desk at work it's the leg of your daily journey where you have no choice but to walk Segway was finally going to make this six million year old act of walking better so why didn't it what happened to the company some said was going to be bigger than the Internet I made some pretty bold predictions about Segway that were wrong I said I'd be the fastest company into a billion dollars in revenue ever and of course by 2007 segways personal transporters had only met a mere 1% of their original projected sales along with a hefty $5,000 price tag sales of the Segway PT were hurt by yet another problem people looked at the Segway and it's like oh you're a geek simply put the Segway PT just wasn't cool [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] the body of the British man who liked the Segway so much he bought the company was found along with his machine in this river near his home in northern England the owner of Segway the company dying on a Segway was both a tragedy and a PR nightmare shortly afterwards medical researchers noticed a growing trend severe Segway related injuries were on the rise after that segways were relegated to the realm of mall cops and tourists the company's mission to change the future of Transportation had failed but when all hope was lost Segway got another chance now Segway has been a quote by its Chinese rival nine book Chinese scooter maker ninebot bought the company the benefits of Segway immediately is it gives us better access to the Chinese market suddenly Segway was an integral part of a newer movement in mobility electric scooter sharing it's a market that could reach nearly 30 billion dollars by 2025 segways new parent company 9bi is one of two leading scooter suppliers for growing companies like Lyme and bird that in turn are deploying them on city streets across the globe but when you get down to it lime bird and ninebot are still trying to solve the same problem Segway was back in 2001 the last mile is the problem and half the world now lives in dense cities and people spend depending on who they are between 90 and 95 percent of their energy getting around on foot this one is set to about 12 miles an hour which is four times walking speed so what used to take you a half an hour and take you seven eight nine minutes the hope was that we would change the world and now you know perhaps if the world has changed and it wasn't changed by us that would have been okay it's much less I think ultimately about who does it and more about the fact that it's been done Segway if you look in the dictionary says transition from one position or idea to another and this is a nice way to go from one place to another and it is an idea [Music]

Channel: CNN Business

Views: 30,320

Keywords: business, segway, Dean Kamen, mobility, tech, segway PT, electric scooter, CNN Business, scooters, Ninebot, CNNB, videos, latest, transportation

Id: U-l4Kf9NUJo

Length: 4min 47sec (287 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 30 2018