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It's funny. Laugh. Robotics

Segway vs. Roomba 153

Posted by CmdrTaco from the battle-of-the-titans dept.
Jerry23 writes "We all knew it would happen. We just didn't know when. But Second Life's Cory Ondrejka has just blogged The Encounter: At last weekend's Accelerating Change Conference, Dean Kamen's demon seed, the Segway personal transporter, met Helen Greiner's lovechild, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, in a climactic crash that will echo through the ages. And I quote: "That night also had what was, for me, the highlight of the conference. I refer, of course, to the ultimate convergence of technology. The perfect connection of human and robot. The consumate collision of 21st century geek products. I am referring, of course, to the moment that a Segway ran over Roomba." "
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Segway vs. Roomba More

Segway vs. Roomba

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  • gee (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ambient_Developer ( 825456 )
    I wish I had this much time on my hands :-). These people are crazy nut jobs! I love it!

    • Re:gee (Score:2, Funny)

      by wilhelmgoetz ( 826230 )
      this much time on my hands

      As opposed to those who read /. ?

      I guess the major difference is that a lot of the /. community pretend to work (like me!), whilst those at the conference have given up that illusion.

      crazy nut jobs

      Not going there.
    • Shit. I wish I had that much money to blow on breaking expensive gadgets.

  • Roomba, my foot! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That wasn't Roomba, that was my foot you insensitive clod!

  • My Bet (Score:5, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:43AM (#10797527) Journal
    Segway wins, Roomba loses, owner of segway still doesn't get laid.

    • Re:My Bet (Score:5, Insightful)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:48AM (#10797567)
      Well, the author mentioned that the majority of people had the Segway mastered in about 15 seconds (which I have to admit is pretty amazing, if true).

      The Roomba, OTOH, I cannot imagine is all that difficult to understand. Put it on the floor and turn it on. From what I have seen of the one at my parents' house it kinda just does its thing from there.

      What I want to compare is the maintenance needs for both. That includes recharging requirements and in the case of the Roomba how many times you need to empty it's (from what I remember) very small dirt collector.

      If the Segway takes 15 seconds to learn and goes for hours without a charge or required stop to perform some necessary task I would say the Segway wins.

      Perhaps the Roomba has a larger collection bin than the one my parents have but I doubt it. Personally, using a regular vaccum seems like a lot less hassle to me.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:50AM (#10797585)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Then I would assume you would need one for every room in the house. The tray is so small that it's just not practical otherwise.
          • And the batteries run out so quick that you'd need a pile of spares and a bunch of rapid chargers to clean every room in a moderate-sized house every day.

          • Re:My Bet (Score:5, Informative)

            by leinhos ( 143965 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:36AM (#10797969) Homepage Journal
            The newer roombas (Discover, et.al.) do a pretty good job of doing multiple rooms, and have a somewhat larger dust bin over the original units.. I'm not sure how much dust/dirt you expect to get out of each room, but if you run it at least weekly it should be able to handle the load.

            We run ours every night after dinner (we have two children under age 5, so we need to sweep up the debris every night to keep any critters at bay), and the thing does our entire 1st floor (about 4 12x15 foot rooms, all hardwoods -- carpets take more time/power) in about an hour. The older batteries used to last about 6-8 months before loosing about half their capacity, but iRobot is supposed to have a "new" battery that will last twice as long.

            The maintenace was an issue on the earlier models, though. The brass bushings/bearings on the counter-rotating brushes would get fouled with hair/dust, and eventually start heating up. If they weren't cleared at least weekly, they would heat up so much that the plastic bracket holding the bushings would melt, and the brushes would eventually not engage the unit's drive socket.

            The newer roombas have a much better design, and can be cleaned more easily (i.e. without a needing a screwdriver), and they seek the recharging base when they are low on power.

      • Re:My Bet (Score:3, Informative)

        by helixblue ( 231601 ) *
        It sounds like you're talking about the first generation of the Roomba's.. similar to what I have. It's a pain to charge, and the canister is woefully small.

        The second generation Roomba claims to have a dirt canister that is 3 times as large, and can automatically locate it's charging base and recharge for you. I have not yet tried one, but as my first generation one died recently, I can only hope that someone gets me one for Christmas.
      • Segway... more expensive than my first car :) Winner -- Roomba!
      • But not by much. They had one at the Tech Museum (downtown San Jose) that they would let you try out for a minute or two. There really isn't that much to it. The docent explained the concept in about 20 words and away I went.

        The day that I was there the place was empty and I got to ride it for a good bit. Controlling it is surprisingly intuitive: lean forward to go forward, lean back to slow (or reverse) and a twist handle to turn. I ran it around in circles and between obstacles (they had cones set up) an

      • Re:My Bet (Score:3, Funny)

        by Idarubicin ( 579475 )
        Well, the author mentioned that the majority of people had the Segway mastered in about 15 seconds (which I have to admit is pretty amazing, if true).

        The whole point of the story is that it's obviously not true. Basic skills, perhaps, but definitely not mastery. Fifteen seconds is enough time to understand the basic controls--and then fall off sometimes when you stop, or occasionally run over a Roomba.

        It's like saying you can learn to drive in fifteen seconds, as long as you don't mind driving with tw

        • Re:My Bet (Score:2, Funny)

          by Gleep ( 1840 ) *
          That must be why people drive so badly here in Atlanta! They all had 15 seconds of training!

          Seriously, when are people here going to get a clue and stop ramming each other on GA-400 like it's a damn demolition derby? It's getting ridiculous.

          Man, that's OT!

          I have yet to buy either a Roomba or a Segway but once I do I'm defo gonna run them into each other and see what happens!

        • You mean "learn to drive a car"? Then, what you're describing is probably bad. But your description sounds more typical of learning to drive a Segway. Except for the "running over a small child" part. Maybe.

      • Re:My Bet (Score:3, Insightful)

        by frantzdb ( 22281 )

        Well, the author mentioned that the majority of people had the Segway mastered in about 15 seconds (which I have to admit is pretty amazing, if true).


        I had a chance to use one and can say that's fairly accurate. I wouldn't say ldquo;mastered, but it's easy enough that it's hard to call it learning. If you get a chance, give it a try. Useful or no, it's a cool piece of technology.

        That said, it's the wrong thing for most people.

    • Re:My Bet (Score:5, Funny)

      by Jakhel ( 808204 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:53AM (#10797606)
      If you can afford to drop 4k or so on a useless segway, i'm sure you can "afford" to get laid.
    • Segway wins, Roomba loses, owner of segway still doesn't get laid.

      But the Roomba didn't lose. After the Segway ran over it, it beeped a little bit and merrily continued along. The thing survived being run over by a Segway with the weight of a person riding on it!

  • Some little problems... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BrakesForElves ( 806095 ) * on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:43AM (#10797533) Homepage
    "Yes, some people had problems, but for the most part this fairly unnatural motion on an inverted pendulum went smoothly."

    Yeah, problems. Like the demonstrator I saw take a violent Segway header at the Minnesota State Fair last year. While he's giving his pitch, one of the wheels on his Segway hit a tiny patch of water on the slick floor. The wheel spun and smoked like a funny car doing a burn-out, and the guy went down so hard that his head bounced about six inches off of the floor. Next day he was back, with a cast on one arm, and a hockey helmet on his head.

    Yeah, the inverted pendulum is a cute trick, but then again, so is riding a unicycle. I wouldn't advise my grandmother to ride either one. On the other hand, I would give her a Roomba. I own one, and apart from driving my pet beagle completely ballistic, it's great.
    • "Yeah, the inverted pendulum is a cute trick, but then again, so is riding a unicycle. I wouldn't advise my grandmother to ride either one."

      Somehow that made me think of this [wanadoo.fr]
      • I had heard GWB is pretty athletic, and I also heard that he had crashed a Segway, but those photos suggest he made a pretty graceful recovery. No, he didn't plant the landing like an Olympic gymnast, but he lands on his feet in a stance used in most contact sports.
    • apart from driving my pet beagle completely ballistic

      This is a bad thing? :)
    • The wheel spun and smoked like a funny car doing a burn-out, and the guy went down so hard that his head bounced about six inches off of the floor.

      Man, if only there were some way [xmission.com] to get around this obvious safety deficiency! It would probably take tons more expensive electronics and a couple more gyroscopes or something...

      • Re:Some little problems... (Score:3, Informative)

        by drew ( 2081 )
        A lot of people like to point out this little piece of drivel, but it's complete BS. Considering the center of gravity of a Segway with a rider is about 3-4 feet off the ground, that wheel would be absolutely usesless in keeping you from going over the handle bars hitting the tiniest bump. Or even stopping. Or keeping you from tipping over backwards going up the smallest of hills. You could make it just as stable with a third wheel, if you were determined to go that route, but it would never be nearly a
        • So to solve the problem could we have a system that drives the passenger face-first into the ground when its tire slips? That'd be sweet.

          • Touche...

            I never said the Segway was perfect, but if I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose the Segway's gyro stabilization over Maddox's third wheel. Of course, I'd also choose walking over either the Segway or the third wheel....
            • Yeah, honestly I don't see Segway as being much better than a wheelchair with a decent motor. It doesn't have that much smaller a footprint, and wheelchairs are naturally stable. But really, I just find the maddox picture hilarious, even if not entirely practical.
        • Wait, you thought that third wheel article (and anything else on that site) was serious? Ha ha ha ha. :)

    • Re:Some little problems... (Score:4, Funny)

      by martingunnarsson ( 590268 ) * <martin&snarl-up,com> on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:54AM (#10797615) Homepage
      I own one, and apart from driving my pet beagle completely ballistic, it's great.

      Apart from? That sounds more like a bonus to me! ;-)
      • I own a pair of Minature Pinschers which certainly qualify high on the list of "Most Neurotic Creatures Alive" and that description makes me seriously consider getting one JUST for that effect.
        • A laser pointer is probably a better gadget then. At least when you get tired of antagonizing the pups, you can put it away, and they calm down again. If you intend to use the Roomba for it's intended use, rather than your currently hoped for effect, you will have to make sure the MinPins are in a different room.

          My Eski pretty much ignores my Roomba after five minutes or so, unlike his ongoing reaction and attacking of the upright vacume. The first five minutes he is looking for a reaction from me for how

          • I have a cat; works great (Score:3, Interesting)

            by zipwow ( 1695 )
            I have a cat and one of the newer "Discovery" models. I don't have the bearings-sieze problem, I read that the design changed to avoid this problem. Works great, don't know what I'd do without it.

            -Zipwow
    • Yeah, I am sure that people NEVER fall when stepping into some liquid. I am sure that all those "Slippery when wet" signs are just a paranoid conspiracy designed to scare us.

      Why is Segway at fault? It is not designed to operate 100% because the physical environment is inherently unpredictable and dangerous and people are clumsy. You can design a lot of safety into a product, but people will still manage to injure or kill themselves using it.

      Yes, Segway has amazing next-generation tires, designed by Michel

  • Aw hell... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:44AM (#10797537) Homepage
    According to the blog, it was an accidental collision. I wanted wanton mayhem! The Segway with James Bond-esque spikes on its hubcaps. The Roomba spitting out dustballs with razors embedded.

    Weak! Call me when they get the Roomba to vacuum up some gasoline and *then* battle. That'll be a fight for the ages.
    • What most people don;t realize is that the company that designed and manufactures the Roomba got its start in robots for the defense industry. The US Army is currently employing a shotgun-wielding robot in Iraq right now. Just Google "roomba shotgun robot".

      Those Segways better watch who they pick on or Roomba's big brother may come calling with its shotgun.

  • mix em? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:44AM (#10797538)
    why not combine them into a rideable vaccum for large offices ; )

  • Roomba? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:44AM (#10797542)
    Does anyone actually have one of those things? It doesn't look like it holds enough or has enough suction power to be of any practical use. It seems to be a conversation piece and not a practical vacuum cleaner.
    • I'll find out soon enough. I just got bought one off their site a few weeks ago.

    • Re:Roomba? (Score:5, Informative)

      by bad-badtz-maru ( 119524 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:53AM (#10797609) Homepage
      I have one and it's actually incredibly effective on hard surfaces. It doesn't really rely on suction power, more on a rotating brush, although it does maximize its suction power by confining it to a squeegee-ish vacuum strip.

      The thing that makes the Roomba totally kick-ass is this little spinning brush it has sticking out of the side. This brush, which is mounted to a flexible rubber piece, does edges and corners far better than any traditional vacuum. Because of this, the roomba can vacuum a room with wood or tile floors far more thoroughly than a person with a regular vacuum.
    • It doesn't look like it holds enough or has enough suction power to be of any practical use.

      True, but it is STILL one helluva lot more useful than the Segway.

    • I doubt it's useful... how is it going to move the furniture out of the way - robotic arms? Does it automatically get out its extension kit and install it when it gets to the corners? Can it climb stairs?

      I'm guessing it doesn't do any of these things, which makes it pretty useless...
      • It doesn't move furniture, but it does drive around it quite tightly, pushing the loose fabric drape that's at the bottom of mine in (and reaching just a bit beyond that with its side brush). It does a very nice job of working up against things. This probably doesn't replace moving them, but I really doubt you move furniture every time either, and the side brush does a lot better job of getting tight against things than a regular head can.

        Anything with open legs it seems to drive right under and edge aroun
    • Yes, i have one, very useful for doghair!
      pics here : http://www.cobbaut.be/huis/huis.php?datum=20040902 &foto=95

      cheers,
      pol :)

    • Re:Roomba? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      basically, it sucks!
    • It's funny this article posted today, because I just picked up one of these things last night.

      It works amazingly well considering its size and the small dust bin. My house is entirely hardwood floors, and this little device works perfectly on it. I hear it has difficulty on carpet, with the thicker carpets being nearly impossible to do. But after just 10 minutes of maneuvering around my living room the dust bin was absolutely full with dirt, dog hair, dry leaves, and other gunk. I actually was astonished

    • Re:Roomba? (Score:3, Informative)

      by puetzk ( 98046 )
      I have one, though I haven't had it very long (just a few days, once through the house so far). It's the newer discovery model (the white 4210). Based my experience so far, it's much more than a conversation piece. We may be 5 years behind schedule, but I finally have my robot housecleaner! Woo!

      It doesn't hold a *lot*, but it didn't totally fill up when I just let it have at the downstairs (which hadn't been done for several weeks, so it was pretty bad) all at once, so it's got enough capacity to be useful

  • Misleading title (Score:4, Insightful)

    by calibanDNS ( 32250 ) <[moc.liamtoh] [ta] [notats_darb]> on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:45AM (#10797545)
    While the article is somewhat interesting, the title is misleading. I expected someone to have done a Battlebots style bout between a Segway and a Roomba. Instead, all that happended was that someone riding a Segway ran over a Roomba that was going across the floor. Maybe if there'd been a video of this it'd be worth a 'funny' story entry...

  • Crap :-( (Score:1, Redundant)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 )
    You built it up like some sort of Battlebots arena death match.

    I'm sending my ED-209 [somethingawful.com] after you, dammit!

  • Roombway? (Score:5, Funny)

    by FauxReal ( 653820 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:48AM (#10797568)
    Darn, I was under the impression that someone had invented some kind of riding vacuum cleaner with a built in navigation system.

  • Summary (Score:5, Informative)

    by upside ( 574799 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:49AM (#10797575) Journal

    "Spent the weekend at a fascinating conference - Accelerating Change 2004 ...

    ... A Roomba was busy cleaning one of the meeting rooms, so it was interesting to actually observe one up close...

    ... there were two Segways available to the conference participants ...

    There were some spectacular collisions, but none topped the moment that a fast moving Segway, slightly out of control, met Roomba, zipping across the floor like a suicidal squirrel. Amazingly, neither seemed the worse for the wear. The Segway popped up and over while Roomba emitted a few beeps from button presses but both continued on their way. Impressive engineering on several levels, actually. Roomba, for surviving the impact

    unharmed and Segway for not tipping over."

    Saves you from reading the article :P
  • The transport revolution that never was ran over the the dream of a household robot. Many science-fiction dreams was hurt in the crash.

    "I met a girl who looks a lot like you
    She does then things you do
    But she is an IBM."

    - Electric Light Orchestra

  • Blog Text (Score:2, Informative)

    by RandoX ( 828285 )
    It's running kind of slow, here's the text in case of ./ing:

    Segway v. Roomba
    Spent the weekend at a fascinating conference - Accelerating Change 2004. For those who haven't heard of it before, the Institute for the Study of Accelerating Change is an educational nonprofit base in LA that focuses on creating an "informed, optimistic, and empowered world community." The tautological nature of that mission might give you pause, but after meeting the volunteers, speakers, and participants, you come away with the

  • I was amazed to discover this the other day: (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AEton ( 654737 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:57AM (#10797632)
    "Gaines and Harvey mounted tumble-bugs, and kept abreast of the Cadet Captain, some twenty-five yards behind the leaing wave. It had been a long time since the Chief Engineer had ridden one of these silly-looking little vehicles, and he felt awkward. A tumble-bug does not give a man dignity, since it is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized on a single wheel. But it is perfectly adapted to patrolling the maze of machinery 'down inside', since it can go through an opening the width of a man's shoulders, is easily contrlled, and will stand patiently upright, waiting, should its rider dismount."
    -"The Roads Must Roll", from The Man Who Sold the Moon, circa 1950

    Heinlein invented the Segway!

  • Slashdot loves to astroturf for the Segway (Score:4, Informative)

    by Jagasian ( 129329 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @09:59AM (#10797659)
    Everybody knows the Segway. It is the most overhyped scooter that the world has ever seen. It all started with a claim that the device would revolutionize the way we build cities. At first it was called only "it". Then later it had its named changed to Segway, when the world was finally told about what it was: a scooter and a really expensive scooter at that!

    So over the years, various shameless websites have astroturfed for the Segway - slashdot being one of them.

    To make a long story short, slashdot hasn't really astroturfed for the Roomba, and thank god! I have owned a Roomba for over a year. The telling thing is that I have only used it for about a total of 3 months. See, the Roomba has one serious problem: it likes to malfunction. I take care of it, clean it, etc... but the god damn over priced piece of crap breaks down all the time. I have it on its second RMA so far, and iRobot likes to take their damn time replacing their shoddy products.

    To make a long story short, avoid the Roomba until it sees a few more iterations and improvements: especially improvements to reliability. Also, it is probably a good idea to avoid the Segway too, considering that you can get an electric scooter for far less than a Segway costs, and anything that needs to be hyped and astroturfed as much as the Segway... probably has no true merit.
    • You seem to miss the byline on under the title... "News for NERDS!!!"

      So yes.. we astroturf for anything geeky, nerdy and slightly over the top products.. as long as it has that nerdy feel or look....

    • Wow, the roomba is actually real? I assumed it was just a design idea that nobody sane would ever build.

      I mean, just what is the point of a motorised vacuum cleaner? It's not *that* hard to push one around a floor...
      • Its not just motorized, its a pretty sophisticated "smart" vacuum that senses the walls and manoevers around the room. The idea is that you turn it on and forget about it. Its also very flat and has no handle so it should be able to drive right under furniture.

        Of course, it ain't perfect - its got a very small storage bay, for example.

    • Roomba upgrade (Score:5, Funny)

      by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:30AM (#10797917)
      I just found an upgrade to the Roomba. It costs about 1/100 as much, never breaks down, is environmentally friendly, usually lasts for many years, uses no power, and provides exercise:
      Witness: THE BROOM! [doitbest.com]

      • Re:Roomba upgrade (Score:4, Interesting)

        by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @12:04PM (#10799091)
        I just found an upgrade to the Roomba. It [...] uses no power [...]

        Not true. It uses human power, which is provided by the calories you eat, which come from meat and grain raised on commercial farms. A tremendous amount of energy is used in the production of that meat and grain (much more energy than you actually gain by eating it). Imagine all the tractors and processing plants. Think about the farm and factory employees, who commute to work by car.

        I admit I haven't run the numbers, but I'd wager that an electrical device is always a more efficient use of fossil fuel energy than the extremely complicated energy flow of human power.

        • A tremendous amount of energy is used in the production of that meat and grain (much more energy than you actually gain by eating it). Imagine all the tractors and processing plants. Think about the farm and factory employees, who commute to work by car.

          Well, okay...but then you have to think about all the mining, smelting, alloying, forging, and so forth that go into the construction of the vacuum cleaner. All the irreplaceable fossil fuel used in making the rubber and plastic components. Heck, you ha

        • But you're going to eat anyway right, even if you buy a roomba?

          Are you going to eat significantly less if you have a roomba?
      • Brooms aren't terribly useful on wall-to-wall carpet.
    • You sound like you just discovered a shiny new hammer and now you feel like everything is a nail. You might just quit using it altogether.

      Maybe you mean to use the word "pimp", such as "Slashdot loves to [pimp] the Segway". Used in this context, it implies that Slashdot overhypes the segway, hoping to gain reader enthusiasm, even if the hype is unfounded.

      Astroturfing is clearly misused (and overused) in your post. As defined [A href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing]he r e[/a], the word is used

  • SVR (Score:4, Funny)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:00AM (#10797663) Homepage Journal
    Segway Vs. Roomba
    Screenplay by Peter Hutnick

    INT. CAVE - NIGHT

    A ROOMBA crouches over the remains of an expensive persian rug. It
    hears a CLUNK and looks up.

    CUT TO:

    EXT. CAVE - NIGHT

    A SEGWAY drops to the ground from it's ship with a CLUNK. It surveys
    the mouth of the cave . . .

    -Peter
  • This could be the beginning of the first soap opera for the artificially intelligent.
  • Seriously think about it. Put handle bars on a segway and no one want's it. Take them off, and it's cool? World's stupist idea.

  • New sport (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 )
    How long untill we see a rollerball type game with polo players riding segways trying to knock a ball into a basket on top of a moveing roomba?
  • the segway pilot got the red key as a prize from cracker jacks.... that might explain a lot.
  • Ah, consumerism at it's finest! One useless, overpriced, plastic toy smashes another useless, overpriced, plastic toy. Somehow, I don't see either of these products as improving life. They both seem to me to be the pinnacle of wasteful laziness. Personally, I'd smash both pieces of junk with a sledgehammer for fun.
  • This just goes to show that robotics, whether fully autonomous or having some control mechanism, will starting making deep penenetration into the economy, especially the household. With the potential to be a multi-billion dollar industry, look to see more roomba look alikes and robust robots built around segway chassis.

  • dueling segways (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dav ( 5309 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:26AM (#10797870) Homepage
    I was standing about three feet away when the segway ran over the roomba. It was indeed a great testimony to the hardiness of both machines. You could probably make a great game out of it; release a couple of speedy roombas and see how many you can run over in a given time limit.

    What I actually found more interesting though, was the number of times people fell off the segways. I've been to a few conferences before where people were taking turns on a segway, and I'd never seen anyone fall off. In about 30 minutes of watching the segway riders at ACC 2004 people fell off at least two dozen times and ran into immobile objects just as much. Also people kept overcompensating when trying to get on it for the first time and were thrown into this violent thrashing mode where they'd feel like they were falling forward so they'd rapidly lean back, causing the segway to pull back and then they'd feel like they were falling back so they'd rapidly lean forward, etc. One guy got into this mode after zipping around waaay too fast and was slammed face first into the carpet -really hard-. Looked like a snowboarder digging an edge in.

    My theory on this was that at all the other conferences there was only one segway, but at this one there were two. Somehow the presence of another segway rider was causing people to push themselves too far too fast instead of easing into it.

    They are fun to ride though, even if you do look like a dork doing it.
    • You could probably make a great game out of it; release a couple of speedy roombas and see how many you can run over in a given time limit.

      Kudos to the parent; that's the funniest mental image I've had in a long time.

      The only question is whether it will be a Summer or Winter Olympic event. My personal preferences is for Winter, so we can do it on ice. :)

    • Re:dueling segways (Score:2, Interesting)

      by merphle ( 744723 )
      Earlier this year, a couple of people rode Segways into the building in which I work (the one and only time I've ever actually seen a Segway in person -- this is not a normal occurance).

      They rode in, looked around, and rode the Segways down an escalator. Yes, they RODE the Segways down an ESCALATOR. I thought they would certainly fall, but they did manage to get downstairs safely.

      Of course, they could have just taken the elevator, which was about 20 feet away... but that wouldn't have been nearly as cool.

    • I want to see two knights in armour with lances go at
      eachother on the field of mortal combat, on segways.

      (sorry, must've been something I ate...)
  • with huge spoilers and skirt kits.

    I want 3!

  • Pics? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Webmoth ( 75878 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:03AM (#10798242) Homepage
    What? Not pictures? No video?

    The least you could to is recreate the incident... I'll volunteer my Grandma to ride the Segway. Ever since her eyesight went bad and her reflexes went south, she's cut her driving back to only 30 miles a day.

  • Clash of the Microbes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beaststwo ( 806402 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:09AM (#10798328)
    While both products are ingenious in their own right, neither represents a giant step in its respective field.

    We have a robotic vacuum that, by all reviews, doesn't clean worth a damn versus a transport device that achieves a fast walk pace for a limited distance at a cost of several thousand dollars.

    My guess is that the stories behind the devices is more interesting than the devices themselves.

  • Free Segway Offer (Score:5, Funny)

    by Superfreaker ( 581067 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:18AM (#10798432) Homepage Journal
    My friend emailed me yesterday, he said I could have a Segway for a one month demo if I came to meet him in Union Square where the CityStreets people were showing them.

    I was excited at first, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to get it home. Then I realized I may have to drive it home and it suddenly was not that exciting of an offer. I just wanted to crash it into the walls of my apartment for a month, not actually ride it in public.

  • Segway adoption (Score:4, Interesting)

    by upside ( 574799 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:44AM (#10798715) Journal
    Never having seen one IRL, can some of you folks from across the pond tell me who are using the segway and for what? Is it private individuals or companies buying them, and for leisure or work?
    • Sure. Segways have found a use in three categories...

      1.) Postal workers. Did you know that some postal workers (the ones that have to walk up to the door and feed mail through the slot, not the ones that are in their little car all day) walk up to 10 miles a day? That's fine when it's maybe 65F and pleasant outside, but continental temperatures range from -10F to 110F, so they would at least like to minimize some of the walking when it sucks outside.

      2.) Cops. Police officers in Chicago walk around, use mo

      • Also, Disney has a couple of them in the "Innoventions" exhibits at both Disneyland (California) and EPCOT (Florida). You don't actually get to ride them, but you can watch the cast members riding.

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