OT: Yikes. AMAZING engineering.

[Zz Yzx]

But are we humans getting too fat and lazy?

[Upscale]

glider or whatever it's called gives you a suitable number of shocks if it thinks you're too heavy. :)

[DA]

into this thing is nothing short of amazing. But note that the girls riding it are quite fit (slender a better word?) - I'm guessing you really need to be light to get any useful range out of the batteries. With

2-axis balancing the motors would be running all the time, even if you're just sitting on it and not moving and so the battery life's probably measured in minutes.

I especially liked the trick when she's carrying a box with files - try something like that on a Segway!

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[RicodJour]

could see the Honda thing being useful at someplace like Disney World where you're standing in line for hours, creeping along, or maybe getting around a large manufacturing plane.

But people fidget and slouch. So if your back is bothering you and you move to stretch to the side and the thing goes shooting off? Or someone bumps into you and then you go shooting off in a sideways direction.

The real fun will be when some kids hack the thing to remove the safeties and boost the speed, and then start doing extreme maneuvers with it.

R

[Bill]

Of course, you know that the fellow that invented the Segway went over a cliff on his device... If I was Mr. Honda, I might be concerned about going over a banister or something ; )

Bill

[Josepi]

Looks like there would be some big patent royalties to the Segway people.

One big theft of concept otherwise. They still existÉ

But are we humans getting too fat and lazy?

[mjmwallace]

Wrong. Wasn't the inventor, but he did own the company:

The British businessman who owns the Segway company plunged to his death after driving one of his famous two-wheeled scooters off a cliff, police said Monday.

Read more:

it was a different Seqway than what is normally sold for the street.

MJ

[Josepi]

Of course, you know that the fellow that invented the Segway went over a cliff on his device... If I was Mr. Honda, I might be concerned about going over a banister or something ; )

Bill

[Larry W]

Impressive technology, but jeez, what is wrong with legs and feet? I'd say we have most of the bugs worked out for the last few hundred thousand years.

[news]

future going everywhere in their electric personal conveyances, to the point that their legs wither. There's a group that opposes the concept and eventually manages to shut down the power to the cars in a manner that apparently can't be undone.

We know that the technology is readily available to create self-guided vehicles for us - GPS, microprocessor, electro-mechanical steering interface, etc.

John

[Steve]

Wonder if there's a speed limitation -- the demo seemed to move pretty slowly. In other words, could you swing your partner, do-see-do?