Word: segway
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...this point Dean Kamen IS used to being called naive. "I'm getting neurotic about people overhyping things," he says, "so let me tell you what it doesn't do." Kamen's caution is understandable. He invented the overpublicized, under-performing superscooter known as the Segway--and was responsible for some of that hype. So when it comes to his latest invention, a low-cost, low-power water purifier designed for the Third World, he wants to be clear: he has no idea how to market it or get it to the people who need it. He just knows...
...beautiful than the next big thing in our imagination; nothing is sadder than the next big thing become reality. Remember "Ginger"? The much buzzed-about transportation device was supposed to revolutionize society and change how cities were built. Was it a jet pack? A teleporter? No, it was the Segway scooter, a goofily innocuous machine that seems to have been designed solely so George W. Bush could tumble off one, as he did this summer in Maine. From dreams of rocket men flying across space-age cityscapes to visions of meter readers riding glorified hand trucks--this is what...
Others have considered the idea of students using hi-tech Segway scooters to zip cross the river—a notion already explored by University President Lawrence H. Summers...
...about to top the Segway as a headline grabber. But as far as personal transport goes, this retrostyle electric bicycle is really cool. Although some other electric bikes still require pedaling, the eGo ($1,400 at egovehicles.com takes about as much effort to ride as an office chair. Unlike the moped, the eGo uses no gasoline: it runs for 25 miles on a battery that charges in five hours and costs less than 20¢ a charge. The eGo's speed (up to 23 m.p.h.) is controlled by twisting the right-hand throttle grip; it slows and stops automatically...
...could wave a magic wand and make every car fuel efficient, it wouldn't solve all our problems," says Dean Kamen, founder of DEKA Research in Manchester, N.H. "It is still very energy intensive to move a 2,000- or 3,000-pound machine." His solution: the Segway, the recently unveiled high-end scooter that goes up to 13 m.p.h., is powered by an electric motor and runs on just a nickel's worth of electricity a day. The batteries today are standard nickel- metal hydride and nickel-cadmium, but the scooters could easily be switched over to a hydrogen...