December 3, 2001

‘IT’ may revolutionize transportation

Inventor Dean Kamen unveils Segway, a one-person scooter

NEW YORK, Dec. 3 — After months of hype — some of it true, some of it false — inventor Dean Kamen has unveiled the Segway, a one-person, gyroscope-packed, electric-powered scooter that proponents say will transform transportation.

KAMEN AND HIS backers have big hopes for the agile Segway, saying the scooter will displace awkward, polluting cars from inner cities, leading to a realigned cityscape that is more people-friendly.

The Segway “will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy,” Kamen told Time magazine for Monday’s edition. “Cars are great for going long distances. But it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-pound piece of metal to haul their 150-pound asses around town.”

Kamen holds roughly 100 U.S. patents. His other inventions include the heart stent used by Vice President Dick Cheney and a radical improvement on old wheelchair designs.
Kamen said the battery-powered device requires little electricity. Kamen’s Manchester, N.H.-based firm DEKA Research and Development will oversee production of the machine.

The two-wheeled Segway, which looks like a cross between an old rotary lawn mower and a Razor scooter, travels at a top speed of 17 miles per hour. According to those who have ridden it, the scooter is difficult to fall from or knock over due to gyroscopes that work to keep it upright and discern where the rider wants to go. Speed and direction are controlled by the rider’s shifting weight.

Riders stand upright over the invention’s single axle, navigating with a bicycle-like handlebar. A single battery charge can propel the scooter 17 miles over level ground, with each hour of charge providing power for two hours’ use.

The U.S. Postal Service, General Electric and National Parks Service will be the first customers to purchase them, buying 80-pound heavy-duty models for $8,000 apiece, according to Time magazine.

The Postal Service plans to test 20 Segways on mail routes in Concord, N.H., and Fort Myers, Fla., starting in January, in hopes of enabling carriers to cover more ground, according to a report on The New York Times’ Web site.

The city of Atlanta plans to use several dozen starting in February in an effort to reduce emissions and traffic congestion, the Times said.

A 65-pound $3,000 consumer model won’t be available for at least a year.
Kamen, who said he withheld information on the Segway until he had finished filing related patents, is an accomplished inventor and recipient last year of the National Medal of Technology, awarded by President Clinton. Kamen’s previous inventions include the first portable kidney dialysis machine.

Kamen unveiled the scooter in New York City on ABC’s “Good Morning America”. ABC’s parent company, The Walt Disney Co., has sponsored Kamen’s robot-building competitions for students.

From the time plans for the machine were first revealed on the Web site Inside.com almost a year ago, tantalizing but unsubstantive mentions of the project - code-named “Ginger” or “IT” - kept the device in a controlled state of pent-up hype.
Corporate luminaries who’d gotten sneak previews described the machine’s impact as “as big as the PC” and “bigger than the Internet.”

Time said its article’s author was given license to shadow Kamen for three months, on condition of secrecy. Other publications, including the New York Times, were given advance information on the project in return for pledges to secrecy.