Stardate 20011202.2212 (On Screen via long range sensors): "It", sometimes called "Ginger", is finally ready and boy is it stupid. It's an almost classic example of a well engineered product where the marketing was totally incompetent; it's a solution to a problem no-one has. It is
an electrically-powered scooter running from rechargable storage batteries; it can carry you about three times walking speed for up to fifteen miles (about two hours) after which you have to recharge it for six hours. It's not completely clear exactly who'd buy this thing or what they'd use it for, or where. A quick trip to the neighborhood store? But where would you leave it while you're inside? It is claimed to have an "Intelligent key" -- but it looks light enough to carry. So the real issue here would be price: if it were cheap, it might well find a nitch. Unfortunately, between things like gyros, pressure sensors on the pad, lots of computing power and in particular several hundred watt-hours worth of NiMH batteries, the retail price comes in at a cool $3000. It occurred to me that I know what they'll be competing against: mopeds. So I "scooted" off to Honda's site and found a couple of representative models. Let's take a gander at them, shall we?
| Segway | Elite
80 | Helix |
| Price | $3000 | $2100 | $5000 |
| Power | electricity | gasoline | gasoline |
| Range | 15 miles | >50 miles | 100 miles |
| Recharge time | 6 hours | 5 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Recharge cost | "10 cents" | $2.00 | $6.00 |
| Top speed | 12 mph | >40 mph | 70 mph |
| Use at night? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Street legal? | No | Yes | Yes |
Light enough
to carry (steal)? | Yes | No | No |
| Trunk? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Passenger? | No | Yes | Yes |
Now why again did I want to buy one of these? (discuss)
This thing is absolutely crying for a fuel cell as its power source instead of batteries. You'd power it with methanol. That would probably quintuple its range and reduce the cost by $1000. Even so, it still doesn't make sense.
