[KSagal]

JohnG's perspective is his own. He worked at Segway for some time. And the mechanics of his last post are not dis-similar to mine.

There are a few differences regarding perspectives. The E program was laid out and used in the early Post Office trials. There were some problems of acceptance that were blamed on, rightly or wrongly, on the e-parking portion...

Also, as any corporate or employer purchased item, designed to get more production from an employee, that employee/glider is going to have a different mindset than an enthusiast plunking down their own money on a product. I was told, and believed, that injuries and complaints that came from this program was a far higher percentage than from the rest of the segway population in general.

Lastly, in 2006, there was a recall of all segways. The i2 was just out, and there were i series machines, e series machines, and p series machines. The i2s were upgraded with new software that did not change their operation, but did resolve the potential problem that initiated the recall. Same with gen 1 i versions, and p versions. But while I did have my e software upgraded, and retained my e parking features, (so the software did exist) the vast majority of e series machines were converted to i series machines.

There was a bit of pushback from current e series owners, who did not want to loose their e parking feature to have this recall/upgrade, and the company policy was to take in an e, and return that machine as an i.

This indicates to me, (as well as having been told this by persons in the decision process) that the decision to remove e and add i came from management, not engineering. And it was not from training nor sales, but from management just the same. The software was done at that time for e to continue, but the company chose another path.

This does not entirely contradict JohnG's point. In fact, it closely parallels it, but there is a different perspective, on a pretty similar path...

So, back to the original comment, No, the lean steer feature had nothing to do with the loss of e parking. That decision was made before the lean steer was introduced. (but not before the lean steer was engineered)