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Old 11-05-2017, 09:08 AM   #31
MacJeepster
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MacJeepster is on a distinguished road
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 14
5 yr Member
Default Update: FedEx now says my Segway-ish Airwheel S5 will arrive Monday

The tracking puts the 92-pound box in Syracuse, but they changed the delivery day from Friday to Monday.
I can wait a couple of more days; I've been waiting since 2001.
When Dean Kamen and his billionaire cronies first started talking about the Segway (first called "Ginger;" as in Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), I was going to buy one right away. Remember. the earliest reports said it was going to change the way cities were built and it would be inexpensive -- $1,000 or so.
I didn't actually need a Segway; I walked pretty well in those days. Nevertheless, it was a huge disappointment to learn I would not be able to afford one.
Kamen completely botched the launch of the Segway. He constructed a U.S. factory capable of building 10,000 Segways a week but never got around to hiring a sales force.
He did he did hire lobbyists to work in each state to get them legalized, with varying success. Here in New York, they're legal everywhere except on the road and on the sidewalk.
However, in 2014, the U.S. Justice Department issued new guidelines for the Americans With Disabilities Act, which basically says people with a disability who use a Segway to get around, can pretty much use it wherever a wheelchair would be allowed.

Sources
I'm sure most of us have read these, but on the off-chance you haven't,:
-The excellent 2003 Wired story on Kamen and the botched Segway introduction:
https://www.wired.com/2003/03/segway/
-The new ADA rules on Segways and "other power-driven mobility devices": https://www.ada.gov/opdmd.htm
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