[Bob.Kerns]

Originally Posted by KSagal

I wonder if this really exists.

We did a thread on this over a year ago, if I remember correctly.

To me, it looks like a chinese knock off of the Toyota Winglet. (that had three options, with differing length handlebars)

Also, in the Law Enforcement area, I saw and copied and pasted this jem:

The DutyCHARIOT Series is a three-wheel front*-wheel drive standup electric personal mobility vehicle.

If it really is a three wheel vehicle, then it is not self balancing. It may only use the 3rd wheel for parking, as I did not see it in the videos.

The site is looking for people to join the 'investor's club'. There is very little actual hard information on this group of people. No addresses, no people. Just images, and requests for people to offer up their names and contact info.

I'd like to hear from someone who actually has had their hands on this thing.

I know when the Q scooter made it to the Segway Fest in Florida in 2004, it was a big hit and lots of us satisfied our curiosity about it. (and it's inability to be even close to a segway in performance, as well as its inability to actually act as it claimed...)

Neither I, nor Google, can find "DutyCHARIOT Series is a three-wheel" anywhere on the intertoobz. The units in the video of "law enforcement" zipping around what looks like an airport terminal pretty clearly don't have 3 wheels. I wonder if their marketing hype has taken a few detours here and there?

I too noted the lack of hard information. That seems to be a recurring theme. It would be interesting to call them up and ask them if they've licensed the Segway patent.

It's interesting to compare and contrast the pre-availability hype of Segway, Tesla, and this.

Even Tesla never reached the level of pure fantasy that Segway did pre-release, but both Segway and Tesla did get to market.

By contrast, this has the appearance of a saner, more real business, with identifiable product, sales strategy (though I'm highly skeptical of their "ownership shares" idea, I acknowledge its creativity), etc. They've clearly put a lot of effort into a "real business" website.

But a few things are lacking. The fact that the only place they mention that there are competitors is one reference to Segway in their Twitter stream. There are no product manuals. Nothing about "how it works", or the advantages of self-balancing technology. Nothing about why you should buy from them vs a Segway.

(Interestingly, you can find a lot of that info, in English, on the *manufacturer's web site. I think perhaps they are trying to obscure the Chinese connection! http://www.robstep.com/)

Nothing about safety. Nothing about service -- just warranty, with no details. Nothing about a delivery date.

Combine that with the bit about "invester's club", and my read is, they don't have the money in hand for a product launch. Unless the manufacturer has another ongoing outlet, I bet they don't have a ramped-up manufacturing capability in hand. I think they'll need to raise cash up front to place an order for more than a few demo units.

Of course, the manufacturer *claims* to be able to deliver 1500 units/month. But nobody sane is going to be running at that level at this point.

The weight capacity spec seems to vary -- the manufacturer's site says 100 kg, which is only 2/3 of the 330 lbs indicated on the iScooterUSA site.

The manufacturer claims to be a robotics company, but this appears to be their first and only product. They were demoing this to Chinese industry people about 18 months ago.

They seem to be spamming the made-in-china.com site, with 400 product offerings -- all of them this, or basic accessories.

They appear to have gotten FCC certification.

There are really two issues here -- the viability of the US company marketing them, and of the Chinese company making them.

Of the two, the US company would appear to me to be the shakier. They've done pretty well with getting a site launched, etc, but against the uncertainty of the patent situation (assuming there's no secret licensing deal with Segway), they're carrying a lot of eggs in a flimsy basket.

The Chinese company can probably turn to something else if this doesn't pay off; they appear to be a spinoff of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. I think it's likely there's a tech firm incubator setup here, with low-cost access to shared manufacturing facilities and infrastructure. A much lower investment than was made for Segway INC (and I suspect that was done very improvidently).

This Q&A is interesting. http://www.robstep.com/en/fuwu.php

Robin can only used at flat grounds. Of cause you can ride a Robin in a rainy day, because Robin is somehow waterproof. But we suggested customers should not use Robin in rainy day in that you can easily falling down on slippery ground.