Lessons from the Awkward Life and Death of the Segway
The “personal transporter” promised to change cities back in 2001. It didn’t. But its demise should be a warning for today’s urban mobility disrupters.
Kings of the road: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (front) tries out a Segway with inventor Dean Kamen in New York's Times Square in 2002.
Photographer: Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg News
In late June, Fast Company broke the news that Segway Inc. would end production of the Segway PT, the self-balancing two-wheeled “personal transporter” that was the company’s most iconic product, if not its most commercially successful. Once touted as the first great invention of the new millennium, it officially ends its nearly 20-year-long production run on July 15 as the butt of more than a few jokes.
But was the Segway really such a failure? Or was it just two decades too early? In light of the current proliferation of e-scooters, e-bicycles, e-skateboards, and hoverboards, the electric urban mobility revolution that Segway promised seems downright prophetic. And its death holds important lessons for Segway’s would-be heirs.