This is what

January 16, 2002 6:22 AM

This is what the Segway should have been. (It's still in prototype but it works.)
posted by Steven Den Beste (20 comments total)

....at least this thing finally got off the ground (19 second test flight). Dang, its noisy.
posted by tomplus2 at 6:32 AM on January 16, 2002

They've been showing stuff like this in the "What's New" section of Popular Mechanics for about 30 years now.

They'll be showing it for another 30 years.
posted by bondcliff at 6:40 AM on January 16, 2002

Don't stretch your arms above your head. OUCH!
posted by LinemanBear at 6:41 AM on January 16, 2002

Yeah, I don't think I'd want two enormous fans so close to my head.

And besides, flying vehicles that are actually flown by a pilot (as opposed to some sort of automatic flight control) will just never be a reality for the vast majority of the populace. They're too dangerous, and the consequences of a failure (whether hardware, or by the pilot) are disastrous.

Not to mention, just think of the security problems if you have to protect against people approaching a target from the air. You'd have to put things like the White House in some sort of hermetically sealed bubble.
posted by bshort at 7:25 AM on January 16, 2002

Wow, that is the most exciting website on the planet!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:33 AM on January 16, 2002

I'm sure this was posted before, I recall it from about a year or so ago, there were a bunch of 007 jokes. Or am I inventing false memmories again?
posted by tiaka at 7:39 AM on January 16, 2002

Been posted numerous times everywhere all over etc. etc. I still think the segway should have been a transporter. Now that's cool.
posted by hurkle at 7:57 AM on January 16, 2002

Yo Joe!
posted by thebigpoop at 8:49 AM on January 16, 2002

Jet Pack! Jet Pack! Jet Pack!
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 9:05 AM on January 16, 2002

Not to mention, just think of the security problems if you have to protect against people approaching a target from the air. You'd have to put things like the White House in some sort of hermetically sealed bubble.



even if it could keep us canuks from burning it down
again, i'm all for it if it would would keep everything
inside from getting out.
posted by Aleph Yin at 9:22 AM on January 16, 2002

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if the car were invented today, they'd never let us have them.
posted by nicwolff at 9:46 AM on January 16, 2002

so, what if the segway gyroscopes are combined with something like that? fly where you lean? That would be interesting.
posted by th3ph17 at 9:52 AM on January 16, 2002

fly where you lean

Isn't that how the jetpacks and flying platforms the military have experimented with maneuver? No gyros are required, you just shift your weight so the thrust axis changes.
posted by Tubes at 10:33 AM on January 16, 2002

It should have been the Moller flying car. I'm name-biased, of course, but really, flying cars should be what Y2K+ are all about.
posted by animoller at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2002

well...
No.
no flying cars until there is a real autopliot just like in all the sci-fi movies. Imagine the average idiot in traffic. Imagine that idiot Flying. Gives me chills. Of course...i want one, and would be perfectly safe.
posted by th3ph17 at 12:58 PM on January 16, 2002

If they don't have auto pilot, I want heat-seeking missles. That would definately make my commute enjoyable.
posted by SpecialK at 2:01 PM on January 16, 2002

i'll stick with the megway
posted by ejoey at 4:04 PM on January 16, 2002

ejoey: that's only with the vinyl options. Get cloth - no stickage.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 5:20 PM on January 16, 2002

I'm waiting for the first case of Segway Rage. Or Megway Rage. Running Megways into each other.... would that be like all-girl wrestling?

Wait, there was a point to this post...what was it...? Oh, yeah:

But will they build cities around it?
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:21 PM on January 16, 2002

"It's still in prototype but it works."

This has been "in prototype" for some years now. I posted a note on it on another message board two years ago thinking how gee whiz it was then.

I agree it is cool, and it does "work", but not yet on any practical level. Whereas the Segeway, whilst it did not (could not?) live up to the hype it generated, was pretty much ready to roll (uh, literally!) as soon as it was released.
posted by lucien at 9:08 AM on January 17, 2002