WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.180 Okay, let's unpack this. I want to start with 00:00:02.180 --> 00:00:04.980 a concept that we see all the time in the history 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:06.879 of technology, but we rarely give it a name. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.439 It's called the innovation paradox. And it's 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:12.759 this, you know, frustrating, fascinating idea 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:15.060 that you can build a piece of engineering that 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:18.719 is... objectively miraculous something that basically 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:21.359 defies physics something that feels like actual 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.239 magic yeah a technical marvel a total marvel 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.100 and yet as a consumer product it can be a complete 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:30.500 and total disaster it's the classic better mousetrap 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:33.560 that nobody actually wants to buy You build the 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.240 perfect machine, but you completely forget to 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:38.399 ask if anyone actually needs it or can afford 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:41.460 it. Exactly. And there is no better example of 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:44.420 this, I mean none, than the subject of our deep 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.679 dive today. This is the textbook case. It really 00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:49.179 is. We are looking at a device that was predicted 00:00:49.179 --> 00:00:51.719 to be, and this is a real quote from a very, 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.420 very smart person, bigger than the Internet. 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:56.539 It's an incredible quote. Not bigger than the 00:00:56.539 --> 00:00:59.750 iPhone or the PC. Bigger than the Internet. And 00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:02.789 that prediction was made by John Doerr, who is, 00:01:02.869 --> 00:01:04.730 you know, one of the most successful venture 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:07.329 capitalists in history. This wasn't some random 00:01:07.329 --> 00:01:12.230 guy. He put $80 million of his fund's money into 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:14.790 this idea before the public ever even saw it. 00:01:14.930 --> 00:01:17.650 $80 million. And he wasn't the only one either. 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:22.069 The hype was immense. We are talking, of course, 00:01:22.090 --> 00:01:25.069 about the segue. The one and only. Now, I know 00:01:25.069 --> 00:01:27.090 what you're probably thinking. Today, if you 00:01:27.090 --> 00:01:30.329 say segue, what comes to mind? Mall cops. Mall 00:01:30.329 --> 00:01:32.689 cops, yeah. Or tourists. Tourists in Rome wearing 00:01:32.689 --> 00:01:35.250 matching, like... Bright yellow helmets just 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:37.769 waddling through a piazza. Or that scene in Arrested 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:39.870 Development with Gob. It's become a joke. It's 00:01:39.870 --> 00:01:42.349 a punchline. It's a psych gag. But our mission 00:01:42.349 --> 00:01:45.069 today is to really strip away all the jokes and 00:01:45.069 --> 00:01:47.430 look at the reality. Because the story of the 00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:49.890 Segway is actually this incredible story about 00:01:49.890 --> 00:01:52.950 the most advanced robotics of the early 2000s. 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:55.950 Absolutely. A genuinely tragic corporate history. 00:01:55.989 --> 00:01:58.250 I mean, involving the death of the company's 00:01:58.250 --> 00:01:59.989 owner. Which is a story that's just unbelievable 00:01:59.989 --> 00:02:03.170 on its own. And a bizarre afterlife where the 00:02:03.170 --> 00:02:06.950 brand is now selling like high -speed off -road 00:02:06.950 --> 00:02:09.469 vehicles. It is a wild ride. We're going from 00:02:09.469 --> 00:02:13.310 this secret code named Ginger all the way to 00:02:13.310 --> 00:02:15.650 a modern vehicle that's literally called the 00:02:15.650 --> 00:02:17.830 supervillain. The supervillain. It's amazing. 00:02:18.530 --> 00:02:21.129 So let's dive into the source material. We are 00:02:21.129 --> 00:02:24.620 pulling from... The original patent filings, 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.439 the corporate history of Segway Inc., biographical 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.539 records of its inventor, Dean Kamen, and of course, 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.180 the technical schematics of the dynamic stabilization 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:36.259 system. And to really get why this thing failed, 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:38.500 you have to understand just how high the expectations 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:40.919 were. It's crucial. We have to go back to the 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:42.300 beginning. So you have to transport yourself 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:44.819 back. We're talking late 90s, early 2000s. Right. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:47.460 The dot -com bubble is peaking or just about 00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:50.139 to burst. And technology is seen as this like 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:53.120 messianic force that is going to fix everything 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:55.599 in society. Total techno -optimism. Exactly. 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:57.919 And the word gets out that Dean Kamen, who was 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.659 already a legend, I mean, he invented the portable 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:04.120 dialysis machine, the Ibiot wheelchair. A legitimate 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:06.379 genius. A total genius. Word gets out he's working 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:08.990 on something secret, something huge. And this 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.110 is where the mystery of Ginger comes in. That 00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:12.729 was the code name, right? Right. The two code 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:16.530 names were Ginger and even more simply, IT. IT. 00:03:16.669 --> 00:03:21.969 Yeah. And the hype machine really, really started 00:03:21.969 --> 00:03:24.889 when a book proposal about the invention was 00:03:24.889 --> 00:03:27.650 leaked. A book proposal? Not even the device 00:03:27.650 --> 00:03:30.289 itself? No, a proposal for a book about the device. 00:03:30.590 --> 00:03:32.750 And the leak didn't say what the machine was. 00:03:32.789 --> 00:03:35.210 It didn't say it's a fancy scooter. It just... 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:38.060 quoted these titans of industry who had seen 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:40.479 it in secret. OK, so we mentioned John Doerr, 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:43.340 but Steve Jobs, this Steve Jobs, he saw it. He 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:46.280 did. And at least initially, Jobs said it was, 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:49.419 and I quote, as big a deal as the PC. As big 00:03:49.419 --> 00:03:51.759 a deal as the PC. Jeff Bezos took a look at it 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:53.960 early on. He was involved. You have to understand 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:55.939 the kind of pressure cooker this creates in Silicon 00:03:55.939 --> 00:03:58.449 Valley and in the media. Oh, for sure. When you 00:03:58.449 --> 00:04:01.530 have the founders of Apple and Amazon telling 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:03.389 the world that something is going to fundamentally 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:06.370 change the structure of cities, I mean, what 00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:08.509 do you even imagine? The public imagination just 00:04:08.509 --> 00:04:11.469 went wild. I remember this so vividly. People 00:04:11.469 --> 00:04:13.889 were speculating it was a hydrogen engine that 00:04:13.889 --> 00:04:15.909 was going to solve the energy crisis. Yeah, or 00:04:15.909 --> 00:04:18.209 an anti -gravity device. People seriously thought 00:04:18.209 --> 00:04:21.339 it might be some kind of hover technology. Or 00:04:21.339 --> 00:04:23.339 actual teleportation. That was a real theory 00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:25.839 floating around. It sounds funny now, but people 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:27.939 genuinely thought that. The expectations were 00:04:27.939 --> 00:04:31.660 set at, like, redefine human civilization. Nothing 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:35.300 less. And the cultural impact was so huge, so 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:38.060 immediate, that South Park actually devoted an 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:40.459 entire episode to making fun of the hype. Before 00:04:40.459 --> 00:04:43.019 it even launched. Before anyone knew what it 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:45.779 was. That's such a crucial detail. The episode 00:04:45.779 --> 00:04:48.620 was just about IT, this mysterious invention, 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.399 and they portrayed it as this world -altering 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:54.220 device that let you travel instantly. Of course, 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:57.019 being South Park, the interface was, well, let's 00:04:57.019 --> 00:04:58.879 just say it was incredibly uncomfortable and 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:01.740 involved some very invasive controls. Right, 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.980 but the point stands. When you are being parodied 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:07.579 on national television for your hype cycle before 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:09.720 you have shipped a single unit... You are in 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.579 dangerous territory. You've set the bar at impossible. 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:16.139 You have to deliver a miracle. Exactly. If you 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:17.779 come out with anything less than a warp drive 00:05:17.779 --> 00:05:19.360 at that point, people are going to be disappointed. 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:21.220 And they did not come out with a warp drive. 00:05:21.500 --> 00:05:24.720 No, they did not. So the bubble has to burst 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:27.459 eventually. The curtain has to come up. And it 00:05:27.459 --> 00:05:30.660 finally did on December 3rd, 2001. A date that 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:32.980 was supposed to go down in history. You know, 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.699 alongside the launch of the Model T, Ford, or 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:37.939 the Wright Brothers' first flight, that was the 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:40.800 level they were aiming for. The location, Bryant 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:44.990 Park, New York City. The platform, Good Morning 00:05:44.990 --> 00:05:47.829 America. Prime time. Dean Kamen goes on live 00:05:47.829 --> 00:05:53.709 TV and outrolls the Segway HT. HT. Yeah. Which 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:56.110 stood for human transporter. Right. Later they 00:05:56.110 --> 00:05:58.610 would change it to PT for personal transporter. 00:05:58.769 --> 00:06:00.490 It's a subtle but important shift. And let's 00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:02.310 just talk about the name for a second. Segway. 00:06:02.329 --> 00:06:05.149 It sounds like Segway. S -E -G -U -E, which, 00:06:05.209 --> 00:06:07.089 you know, means a smooth transition. Exactly. 00:06:07.129 --> 00:06:10.139 A smooth transition from walking to, well. To 00:06:10.139 --> 00:06:12.939 writing. It was clever branding. But as the sources 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:16.040 note, the name Segway is a registered trademark. 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:18.879 They really leaned into that concept of fluid, 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.920 effortless movement. So they unveil it. And it's 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.019 this, this two -wheeled platform with a handlebar. 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:27.300 And the first thing everyone watching at home 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:30.980 notices is that it doesn't tip over. That was 00:06:30.980 --> 00:06:33.800 the magic trick. That is the absolute core of 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:35.920 the engineering. Yeah. And frankly, you know. 00:06:36.550 --> 00:06:38.829 Regardless of the sales figures or the cultural 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:41.970 impact, the engineering is spectacular. We really 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:44.449 need to appreciate what they achieved here. So 00:06:44.449 --> 00:06:47.649 how did they do it? Well, the source material 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:50.370 explains that the dynamics of the Segway are 00:06:50.370 --> 00:06:53.370 similar to a classic control problem in robotics 00:06:53.370 --> 00:06:57.129 known as the inverted pendulum. Okay, let's unpack 00:06:57.129 --> 00:06:59.529 inverted pendulum for the non -engineers listening 00:06:59.529 --> 00:07:02.230 because this is the fundamental concept behind 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:06.050 the whole machine. For sure. Think about balancing 00:07:06.050 --> 00:07:08.029 a broomstick on the palm of your hand. You've 00:07:08.029 --> 00:07:09.370 probably done this as a kid, right? Oh, yeah, 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:11.269 definitely. The broomstick wants to fall over. 00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:14.310 Gravity is pulling it down constantly. So to 00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:16.230 keep it upright, you have to constantly move 00:07:16.230 --> 00:07:18.329 your hand. Right. If it starts leaning forward, 00:07:18.670 --> 00:07:20.629 you have to quickly move your hand forward to 00:07:20.629 --> 00:07:22.930 get back under the center of gravity. Exactly. 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:25.250 If it leans back, you move your hand back. You're 00:07:25.250 --> 00:07:27.410 constantly making these tiny, tiny adjustments. 00:07:27.490 --> 00:07:29.759 You are, and you're doing it instinctively. Your 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:33.000 eyes see the lean, your brain processes it instantly, 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:35.579 and your arm just moves. Right. But with the 00:07:35.579 --> 00:07:37.839 Segway, the machine has to do all of that for 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:41.000 you. It has to act as the hand, and you the rider, 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:44.120 you're the broomstick. But doing that mechanically 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.139 with motors and sensors back in 2001, that was 00:07:47.139 --> 00:07:49.339 incredibly difficult. It was state -of -the -art. 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:53.100 The Segway uses these powerful brushless DC electric 00:07:53.100 --> 00:07:56.240 motors, one in each wheel, to constantly adjust 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.319 the position of the wheels to keep the whole 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.860 platform. And you, upright. So if I lean forward, 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:04.199 the wheels spin forward to catch me. Instantly. 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.779 And if you lean back, they spin backward. It's 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:09.060 a constant high -speed balancing act. But how 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:11.019 does it know? I mean, how does it know I'm leaning 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.740 forward and not just, you know, standing on a 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:16.759 hill? Sensors. A whole sophisticated array of 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:19.300 sensors. The sources detail that it used a combination 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:23.000 of tilt sensors and, crucially, gyroscopic sensors. 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:24.800 And these weren't just parts you could buy at 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.740 RadioShack. Oh, not at all. And here's an amazing 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:32.019 detail. These sensors were developed by the Advanced 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:35.659 Technology Center of BAE Systems. BAE Systems, 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.759 the massive defense and aerospace company, the 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:41.240 guys who build fighter jets. The very same. This 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:43.840 wasn't consumer electronics grade stuff. This 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.159 was high -grade aerospace technology being applied 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.960 to a sidewalk scooter. They used what are called 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:52.120 solid -state silicon gyroscopes. Okay, what is 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:54.379 a solid -state gyroscope? When I think of a gyroscope, 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:56.399 I think of that spinning top toy, the little 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:58.320 metal wheel. That's a mechanical gyro, right? 00:08:58.909 --> 00:09:00.750 These were completely different. They worked 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:03.190 using something called the Coriolis effect. Okay. 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:06.570 Essentially, they vibrated a tiny silicon structure. 00:09:06.750 --> 00:09:08.870 And when I say tiny, I mean microscopic, like 00:09:08.870 --> 00:09:12.149 a tiny tuning fork. When the Segway tilted or 00:09:12.149 --> 00:09:14.509 rotated, the Coriolis force would cause that 00:09:14.509 --> 00:09:16.549 vibrating structure to shift just a little bit. 00:09:16.629 --> 00:09:18.769 And the machine could measure that shift. With 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:21.269 incredible precision. electronics could measure 00:09:21.269 --> 00:09:23.590 that deflection and know exactly how fast and 00:09:23.590 --> 00:09:25.190 in what direction the machine was tilting. So 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:28.070 no moving parts, really. No macroscopic moving 00:09:28.070 --> 00:09:31.210 parts, which made them incredibly durable and 00:09:31.210 --> 00:09:35.730 reliable. And get this, the Segway had five of 00:09:35.730 --> 00:09:38.149 these gyroscopes. Five? Why on earth did it need 00:09:38.149 --> 00:09:40.850 five? Well, that's the thing. It didn't. It only 00:09:40.850 --> 00:09:43.789 needed three to balance properly, one for each 00:09:43.789 --> 00:09:45.950 axis of movement. So what were the other two 00:09:45.950 --> 00:09:48.830 for? Backups. This is that aerospace influence 00:09:48.830 --> 00:09:51.580 again. It's called redundancy. Ah, of course. 00:09:51.659 --> 00:09:54.220 If one of the primary sensors failed for any 00:09:54.220 --> 00:09:56.379 reason, the machine wouldn't just shut off and 00:09:56.379 --> 00:09:58.919 throw you into traffic. It would seamlessly switch 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:01.159 to the backup sensor without you even noticing. 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:03.259 That makes a lot of sense. I mean, if my laptop 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:05.820 crashes, I just lose a Word document if the Segway 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:08.259 crashes. You break your nose or worse. Exactly. 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:11.220 The consequence of failure was physical injury. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:14.139 So they built like a fighter jet. They over -engineered 00:10:14.139 --> 00:10:16.240 it for safety. So you have these gyroscopes and 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:18.759 tilt sensors, and they're detecting the tiniest 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.559 shift in the rider's weight. And that data is 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:23.960 fed into the computer, which then tells the motors 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:26.960 what to do. And that created the user experience. 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:30.480 The telepathic feeling. Exactly. The source describes 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.179 it as the user simply leaning forward to go and 00:10:34.179 --> 00:10:36.720 leaning back to stop or reverse. Because the 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:38.860 sampling rate was so high, I mean, it was checking 00:10:38.860 --> 00:10:41.580 its own balance 100 times every second. The reaction 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.519 was... Instantaneous. A hundred times a second. 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:47.440 So it felt, as so many early users described, 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:50.360 telepathic. You think, go forward. You lean a 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:53.740 millimeter and you just go. It really was marriagey 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:55.840 at the time. I remember riding one years and 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:58.200 years ago. And it does feel like the machine 00:10:58.200 --> 00:10:59.980 is reading your mind. You don't feel like you're 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:02.279 pushing a throttle or steering a vehicle. You 00:11:02.279 --> 00:11:05.620 just float. And that was the genius of Dean Kamen's 00:11:05.620 --> 00:11:07.899 vision. He said he didn't want a vehicle you 00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:10.100 drove. He wanted a vehicle you wore. Something 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:12.379 that became an extension of your body. So what 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:14.440 was powering this thing? Let's look at the power 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:17.139 source. Initially, they were using nickel metal 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:20.799 hydride batteries, right? Not lithium ion. Correct. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.320 The early models used NMRH batteries. Later, 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:26.259 they would switch to lithium ion, which was a 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.460 huge, huge upgrade in both range and weight. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:30.620 But in those first generation models, you were 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:32.919 looking at a range of about 6 to 10 miles on 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:36.389 a single charge. Which for 2001 is actually decent, 00:11:36.570 --> 00:11:39.669 but it's not exactly, you know, a cross -country 00:11:39.669 --> 00:11:42.149 tour. No, absolutely not. And a full recharge 00:11:42.149 --> 00:11:45.169 took four to six hours. So it was strictly an 00:11:45.169 --> 00:11:48.590 urban mobility device, a last mile solution, 00:11:48.769 --> 00:11:50.659 as they called it. Now, I want to talk about 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:52.860 how you actually steered the thing in the beginning. 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:55.600 Because if you've ridden a Segway recently or 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.379 you've seen one in a mall, you know you lean 00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:00.559 the handlebars left and right to turn. Right. 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:02.679 That's the intuitive way. But that's not how 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:05.220 the original worked at all. No. And this is a 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.080 detail that's often forgotten. The first generation, 00:12:08.419 --> 00:12:12.179 the Segway HT, it didn't rely on leaning the 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:15.460 handlebars for turning. It used a twist grip. 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:18.139 on the left handle. Like a throttle on a motorcycle? 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:20.500 Sort of, but it wasn't for speed. It was for 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:23.179 turning. You would twist it to vary the speeds 00:12:23.179 --> 00:12:25.620 of the two motors independently. Ah, so it was 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:28.100 differential steering. Exactly. If you twisted 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:30.200 the grip forward, one wheel would spin a little 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:32.100 faster than the other, causing the whole unit 00:12:32.100 --> 00:12:35.039 to pivot. It was much more mechanical, much less 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:37.460 intuitive than the lean -to -turn system that 00:12:37.460 --> 00:12:39.679 came later. It sounds kind of tricky. It was 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.440 a bit tricky to master, especially while you 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:44.120 were also trying to learn how to balance with 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.100 your body. It was two different mental tasks 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:48.460 at once. And they had different keys for the 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:50.080 speed settings, right? I remember this being 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:51.539 a big deal. You had to have the right key to 00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:53.440 go fast. That's right. There are these little 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:56.460 physical electronic fobs, almost like a car key. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.399 The source lists three specific settings for 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:02.659 the original models. Okay, what were they? You 00:13:02.659 --> 00:13:05.159 had the black key, which was the learning or 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:07.980 slow setting. It capped you at a very safe six 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:10.720 miles per hour. The beginner mode. Exactly. Then 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:12.539 you had the yellow key, which lets you go up 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:14.220 to eight miles per hour with faster turning. 00:13:15.059 --> 00:13:19.539 And then you had the red key. The red key. The 00:13:19.539 --> 00:13:23.019 danger zone. The key to unlocking its full blistering 00:13:23.019 --> 00:13:26.769 top speed of... 10 miles per hour. 10 miles an 00:13:26.769 --> 00:13:29.250 hour. It sounds so slow now, but standing eight 00:13:29.250 --> 00:13:31.789 inches off the ground on a narrow platform, I 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:33.970 bet 10 miles an hour feels pretty quick. Oh, 00:13:33.990 --> 00:13:36.529 it does. It feels plenty fast. Yeah. About three 00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:38.370 or four times faster than an average walking 00:13:38.370 --> 00:13:41.470 speed. And that was the whole pitch. Walk, but 00:13:41.470 --> 00:13:44.230 faster and without sweating. But the launch wasn't 00:13:44.230 --> 00:13:46.429 without its problems. We have to talk about the 00:13:46.429 --> 00:13:48.710 recall. That must have been a huge blow. Yes, 00:13:48.710 --> 00:13:52.590 September 2003. This was a significant blow to 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:55.500 the early momentum for sure. The source notes 00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:57.980 a recall was issued because of a very specific 00:13:57.980 --> 00:14:01.419 danger related to the battery. Okay, what was 00:14:01.419 --> 00:14:04.220 the issue? Did they catch fire? No, nothing like 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:06.659 that. It was about what happened when the battery 00:14:06.659 --> 00:14:10.419 got critically low. If users ignored the repeated 00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:12.799 low battery warnings. Which people do all the 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:15.549 time. All the time. If you ignored the warnings, 00:14:15.750 --> 00:14:18.149 the machine could suddenly execute an emergency 00:14:18.149 --> 00:14:21.309 shutdown. And on a self -balancing machine, shutdown 00:14:21.309 --> 00:14:24.509 means stop balancing. Which means the rider face 00:14:24.509 --> 00:14:27.269 plants instantly. If you are moving at 10 miles 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:29.370 an hour and the machine suddenly just gives up 00:14:29.370 --> 00:14:31.330 and goes limp. Momentum takes over. You become 00:14:31.330 --> 00:14:34.090 a projectile. Exactly. It was a serious safety 00:14:34.090 --> 00:14:36.370 flaw. So they had to fix that, obviously. They 00:14:36.370 --> 00:14:38.610 did. They issued a software update. They added 00:14:38.610 --> 00:14:42.519 a feature called speed limiter or pushback. If 00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:45.100 the battery was getting low, or if you were trying 00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:47.360 to accelerate too fast or go too steep a hill, 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:49.820 the machine would actively tilt the handlebars 00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:52.440 back towards you. Oh, so it forces your weight 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:54.860 back? It forces you to slow down. It feels like 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:56.860 the machine is fighting you, like a horse rearing 00:14:56.860 --> 00:14:58.879 up. That's a terrifying sensation, actually, 00:14:59.059 --> 00:15:01.840 the robot saying no. It is, but it's a lot better 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:03.860 than the power just cutting out completely and 00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:06.570 sending you flying. Fair point. So that was the 00:15:06.570 --> 00:15:09.269 first generation. That ran from 2001 to about 00:15:09.269 --> 00:15:13.350 2006. But then came the big upgrade, the lean 00:15:13.350 --> 00:15:16.610 steer era. This is when the Segway really became 00:15:16.610 --> 00:15:18.570 the machine that most of us recognize today. 00:15:18.830 --> 00:15:21.470 2006 was a pivotal year for them. Segway Inc. 00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:24.110 actually discontinued all the previous models. 00:15:24.269 --> 00:15:26.590 They just wiped the slate clean and introduced 00:15:26.590 --> 00:15:29.690 two new ones. The I2 and the Bi2. The I2 and 00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:32.210 the Bi2. Very Apple -sounding names for the time. 00:15:32.309 --> 00:15:34.610 Very much so. Yeah. And the single biggest change 00:15:34.610 --> 00:15:37.850 was the introduction of lean steer. So gone was 00:15:37.850 --> 00:15:40.649 the twist grip. Gone. Completely gone. Now, the 00:15:40.649 --> 00:15:42.870 entire handlebar stock pivoted left and right 00:15:42.870 --> 00:15:44.629 from the base. So if you wanted to turn left, 00:15:44.809 --> 00:15:46.610 you just leaned your body in the bar to the left. 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:48.580 Which is how your body wants to turn anyway. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:50.860 It's completely natural. It aligned the steering 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:53.179 mechanism with the balancing mechanism. It made 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:55.740 the whole experience totally cohesive. You lean 00:15:55.740 --> 00:15:58.679 forward to go, lean back to stop, lean left or 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:02.220 right to turn. One simple intuitive system. It 00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:04.879 completed that telepathic feel they were going 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.899 for. And they bumped up the specs too. Significantly. 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.700 The top speed went up to 12 .5 miles per hour. 00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:13.679 A nice little boost. But more importantly, the 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.279 range. Right. They switched to lithium ion batteries. 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:18.980 They did. And with the better batteries and the 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:20.779 addition of regenerative braking, so it would 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:23.340 capture energy when you slowed down, the range 00:16:23.340 --> 00:16:27.100 jumped to 15 to 25 miles. That is a huge jump. 00:16:27.139 --> 00:16:29.940 25 miles is a legitimate commute for some people. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:32.539 You could go from the suburbs to downtown and 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.120 maybe even back. It is. It moved it from a last 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:37.600 mile device to a last few miles device. Yeah. 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.039 It really opened up its potential utility. And 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:42.429 they also introduced the InfoKey. The info key. 00:16:42.470 --> 00:16:44.009 This was like a little digital dashboard, right? 00:16:44.169 --> 00:16:46.389 But wireless. Yeah, a wireless controller that 00:16:46.389 --> 00:16:48.570 you could keep in your pocket or clip to the 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:51.309 handlebar. It showed your speed, your trip odometer, 00:16:51.429 --> 00:16:54.750 your battery life. But it also acted as the security 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.590 key. And it had that security mode. Which was 00:16:57.590 --> 00:17:00.190 actually quite clever. If you parked your Segway 00:17:00.190 --> 00:17:02.370 somewhere and put it in security mode, it would 00:17:02.370 --> 00:17:04.769 lock the wheels. But if someone tried to move 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:07.750 it, not only would a loud alarm go off, but the 00:17:07.750 --> 00:17:10.819 wheels would actively resist the movement. The 00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:13.440 motors would engage and shudder and fight against 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:15.700 being rolled away. A rebellious little robot. 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.200 I love that. It was a very advanced piece of 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:21.700 kit for 2006. Now, before we move on to the business 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:24.500 side of things, the... Expert in you will love 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:26.759 this part. The source material lists a whole 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:28.619 bunch of different model variants from that pre 00:17:28.619 --> 00:17:31.759 -2011 era. We know the i2 and the bi -2, but 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:33.559 there were some deep cuts. Oh, for sure. There 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:35.799 were a lot of distinct figures of Segway. Before 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:38.680 the i2, you had the original i167, and then there 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:41.599 was the E167. The E167, what was special about 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:43.819 that? It had an electric kickstand. An electric 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:46.640 kickstand. That feels like peak luxury or peak 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.880 over -engineering. A little of both, maybe. Then 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:52.119 there was the P133, which was a much smaller 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:54.660 platform with smaller wheels. It was less powerful, 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:57.519 maxing out at 10 miles per hour. And it was designed 00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:00.920 perhaps for lighter users or for use in tighter 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:03.740 indoor spaces like a warehouse. And the XT, what 00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:07.059 was that? The XT was the precursor to the X2. 00:18:07.529 --> 00:18:10.069 It was really the first Segway specifically designed 00:18:10.069 --> 00:18:12.869 for recreation. It had those big, knobby, rugged 00:18:12.869 --> 00:18:15.089 tires for off -road use. And we can't forget 00:18:15.089 --> 00:18:17.190 the golf aspect. They really tried to make that 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.890 happen. Oh, we cannot. The buy two SE Sport had 00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:22.109 accessories. There's a whole third -party company 00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:24.609 called Seg Solution. And it was all aimed at 00:18:24.609 --> 00:18:27.150 the golf market. The idea was to replace the 00:18:27.150 --> 00:18:30.430 big four -person golf cart with a personal stand 00:18:30.430 --> 00:18:32.569 -up carrier for your clubs. I mean, it makes 00:18:32.569 --> 00:18:34.589 sense on paper. It probably speeds up the game, 00:18:34.630 --> 00:18:36.920 less damage to the turf. But again, we didn't 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.220 see a mass takeover of the world's golf courses. 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:41.740 No. No, we did not. And that brings us right 00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:44.200 to the business reality. Because despite all 00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:46.539 this amazing innovation, despite the aerospace 00:18:46.539 --> 00:18:49.180 sensors and the telepathic steering, the company 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:51.119 was really struggling to find its footing. It 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:53.460 just wasn't selling. It wasn't selling in the 00:18:53.460 --> 00:18:55.759 numbers they needed. And this leads us to the 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:59.200 end of the Dean -Kamen era. Right. So this is 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:02.049 Section 3, the business roller coaster. Dean 00:19:02.049 --> 00:19:04.509 Kamen, the inventor, the man behind the entire 00:19:04.509 --> 00:19:07.809 vision, he sells the company in December 2009. 00:19:08.190 --> 00:19:10.809 He sells it to a British businessman, a millionaire 00:19:10.809 --> 00:19:14.289 named Jimmy Heselden. And this, this is where 00:19:14.289 --> 00:19:16.769 the story takes a turn that plays out like a 00:19:16.769 --> 00:19:19.130 Greek tragedy. And I really don't use that term 00:19:19.130 --> 00:19:21.190 lately here. It is genuinely tragic. And the 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:23.230 irony is just. Yeah. It's almost unbelievable. 00:19:23.349 --> 00:19:26.470 So Jimmy Heselden buys the company in December 00:19:26.470 --> 00:19:29.769 2009. He was a self -made man, a philanthropist, 00:19:29.769 --> 00:19:32.269 a former coal miner. He clearly believed in the 00:19:32.269 --> 00:19:34.690 product and its potential. Okay. But less than 00:19:34.690 --> 00:19:37.549 a year later, in September of 2010, disaster 00:19:37.549 --> 00:19:39.990 struck. What happened? Heselden was riding a 00:19:39.990 --> 00:19:42.690 Segway. The reports say it was a rugged country 00:19:42.690 --> 00:19:44.950 version, so likely in a buy -two model with the 00:19:44.950 --> 00:19:47.829 off -road tires on, his private estate in Yorkshire, 00:19:47.869 --> 00:19:50.210 England. Okay. He was riding near a cliff path 00:19:50.210 --> 00:19:52.349 that was above the River Wharf. And he went over 00:19:52.349 --> 00:19:55.230 the edge. He plunged 80 feet into the river below. 00:19:55.269 --> 00:19:57.710 He was found dead. The owner of the Segway company 00:19:57.710 --> 00:20:00.289 died while riding a Segway. It's hard to overstate 00:20:00.289 --> 00:20:02.809 how much of a shadow this single event cast over 00:20:02.809 --> 00:20:04.930 the brand. I remember reading about it when it 00:20:04.930 --> 00:20:07.730 happened, and it just felt like, well, it felt 00:20:07.730 --> 00:20:10.029 like proof to all the skeptics. It reinforced 00:20:10.029 --> 00:20:13.009 every single negative public perception of the 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:16.349 device. It was already seen as expensive and, 00:20:16.390 --> 00:20:19.490 you know, maybe a little bit dorky. Now it was 00:20:19.490 --> 00:20:22.269 perceived as potentially dangerous. The logic 00:20:22.269 --> 00:20:25.279 is brutal. If the owner of the company, a man 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:27.539 who presumably knew the machine better than anyone 00:20:27.539 --> 00:20:30.380 on the planet, could have a fatal accident on 00:20:30.380 --> 00:20:33.240 one. What chance did the average consumer have? 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:36.140 It was a PR nightmare that they could never really 00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:39.140 recover from. Just an awful, awful story. So 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:42.519 the company is in turmoil. The new owner is gone. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:45.079 And a few years later, a new player enters the 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.900 scene, this time a rival. Enter Ninebot. Ninebot 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:51.240 was a robotic startup based in Beijing. And they 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.259 weren't exactly friends at first. This wasn't 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:54.980 a friendly merger we're talking about initially. 00:20:55.380 --> 00:20:57.980 Oh, far from it. This was a hostile relationship. 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:01.660 Ninebot was making similar self -balancing scooters, 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:04.920 what many would call knockoffs. And Segway Inc. 00:21:05.099 --> 00:21:07.930 was not happy about it at all. The source mentions 00:21:07.930 --> 00:21:12.869 a pretty serious legal battle. In 2014, Segway 00:21:12.869 --> 00:21:15.069 Inc. filed official complaints with the U .S. 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:17.410 International Trade Commission. Their claim was 00:21:17.410 --> 00:21:20.069 very straightforward. Patent infringement. Exactly. 00:21:20.369 --> 00:21:22.750 They claimed that Ninebot and several other companies 00:21:22.750 --> 00:21:25.750 were infringing on Segway's patents and copyrights. 00:21:25.769 --> 00:21:28.309 So Segway wanted to block them from the U .S. 00:21:28.329 --> 00:21:30.250 market. They wanted to ban the imports of all 00:21:30.250 --> 00:21:32.430 these competing scooters into the United States. 00:21:32.690 --> 00:21:34.650 They were trying to use their intellectual property 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:37.009 as a shield to protect... what little market 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:38.970 they had. We invented this. You can't sell your 00:21:38.970 --> 00:21:41.690 version here. But Ninebot, they had some serious 00:21:41.690 --> 00:21:44.430 backing. Oh, serious backing. They had just raised 00:21:44.430 --> 00:21:47.529 $80 million from Xiaomi, one of the biggest tech 00:21:47.529 --> 00:21:49.829 companies in China, and from Sequoia Capital, 00:21:50.029 --> 00:21:52.849 a legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm. 00:21:53.029 --> 00:21:55.609 So you have Segway, the fading American pioneer, 00:21:55.869 --> 00:21:58.410 trying to sue Ninebot, the well -funded Chinese 00:21:58.410 --> 00:22:02.009 upstart. And how did that resolve itself? In 00:22:02.009 --> 00:22:04.049 the classic ultimate corporate power maneuver. 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.180 If you can't win the lawsuit, just buy the plaintiff. 00:22:07.339 --> 00:22:10.920 Wow. In April of 2015, Ninebot announced that 00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:13.539 it had acquired Segway Inc. They just bought 00:22:13.539 --> 00:22:15.799 them out. Completely. The lawsuit just vanished 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.319 because the two companies became one. And this 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:20.299 shifted the entire trajectory of the company. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:23.460 It broadened the scope from just making the Segway 00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:26.180 PT to a whole range of other personal transportation 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:29.140 devices. But for the Segway PT, the classic original 00:22:29.140 --> 00:22:31.759 two -wheeler, the writing was on the wall. It 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:34.640 took another five years, but yes. In June of 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:37.599 2020, the announcement finally came down. Ninebot 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:39.519 announced it would no longer make the Segway 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.839 PT. Production was ending. The end of an era. 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:44.460 And looking back at the sales stats now, they 00:22:44.460 --> 00:22:47.160 are just, they're sobering. The number is 140 00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:50.180 ,000 units. That is the total sales figure over 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:52.200 the entire lifetime of the product. Over almost 00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:56.980 20 years. From 2001 to 2020, 140 ,000. I mean, 00:22:56.980 --> 00:22:59.460 to put that in perspective, Apple sells that 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:02.559 many iPhones in like an hour a morning. It's 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:04.400 probably less than an hour, yeah. Even for a 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:07.059 vehicle, that's a tiny, tiny number. And the 00:23:07.059 --> 00:23:09.660 source notes that in its later years, the Segway 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:13.619 PT line made up only 1 .5 % of a company's total 00:23:13.619 --> 00:23:15.539 profit. One and a half percent. It had become 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:18.400 a legacy product, a footnote in its own company. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:21.059 So we have to ask the big question, why? Why 00:23:21.059 --> 00:23:23.440 did it fail? Why wasn't it bigger than the internet? 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.420 Why didn't it redesign all our cities? The source 00:23:26.420 --> 00:23:28.599 material and... You know, just looking back, 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:31.400 it points to several key factors that all kind 00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:35.059 of converged. First and foremost, the price. 00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:38.519 Oh, the price. It launched at $5 ,000 U .S. dollars. 00:23:38.579 --> 00:23:42.940 $5 ,000. In 2001, money. That's roughly, what, 00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:46.440 $7 ,500 or $8 ,000 today? That was just an astronomical 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:49.019 sum for a device that couldn't protect you from 00:23:49.019 --> 00:23:50.940 the rain, couldn't carry a passenger, and you 00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:53.160 couldn't legally ride on the street or the sidewalk 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:56.920 in most places. It was legislative chaos. And, 00:23:56.980 --> 00:23:59.539 you know, Steve Jobs was right about that. The 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:01.940 source mentions that Jobs, after his initial 00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:05.339 hype, later criticized it heavily. He asked Kamen, 00:24:05.420 --> 00:24:08.059 you're sure your market is upscale consumers 00:24:08.059 --> 00:24:11.200 for transportation? He saw the flaw in that pricing 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:13.920 strategy immediately. He knew. It was priced 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:16.759 like a decent used car, but it had the utility 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:19.519 of a very expensive bicycle. It just didn't make 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:21.640 economic sense for the average person. Not at 00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:23.579 all. You could buy a really nice Vespa scooter 00:24:23.579 --> 00:24:26.359 and still have thousands of dollars left over. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:28.960 Okay, so price is number one. What's next? The 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:31.200 learning curve. Right. It wasn't as plug and 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.640 play as promised. No. You had to learn to trust 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:35.539 it. You had to learn to balance in a new way. 00:24:35.700 --> 00:24:37.660 And when that trust was broken, it was very, 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:39.910 very public. We mentioned the tragedy with Jimmy 00:24:39.910 --> 00:24:41.730 Heselden, but there were all those other high 00:24:41.730 --> 00:24:44.109 -profile accidents that really hurt the image. 00:24:44.390 --> 00:24:48.130 The source lists some huge names. George W. Bush. 00:24:48.170 --> 00:24:50.430 I remember that photo. It was everywhere. The 00:24:50.430 --> 00:24:52.369 president of the United States falling off a 00:24:52.369 --> 00:24:54.930 Segway at his parents' home. Yep. He apparently 00:24:54.930 --> 00:24:56.930 tried to get on it while it was turned off or 00:24:56.930 --> 00:24:58.809 something like that, and down he went. Yeah. 00:24:58.910 --> 00:25:01.230 Then you have Usain Bolt. The fastest man in 00:25:01.230 --> 00:25:03.250 the world. Gets run over by a cameraman on a 00:25:03.250 --> 00:25:05.029 Segway. Oh, that's right. He wasn't even riding 00:25:05.029 --> 00:25:07.349 it. He was the victim of one. Exactly. It was 00:25:07.349 --> 00:25:09.809 at the World Athletics Championships. The cameraman 00:25:09.809 --> 00:25:14.230 on the Segway hit a trackside rail, lost control, 00:25:14.450 --> 00:25:17.309 and just bowled right into the fastest runner 00:25:17.309 --> 00:25:20.130 on the planet right after he won a race. It's 00:25:20.130 --> 00:25:23.109 like a comedy sketch. It really is. And it reinforced 00:25:23.109 --> 00:25:25.769 this idea that these things were clumsy or hard 00:25:25.769 --> 00:25:29.230 to control or just generally dangerous. Ellen 00:25:29.230 --> 00:25:31.750 DeGeneres had a mishap on her show. Ian Healy, 00:25:31.849 --> 00:25:34.029 the Australian cricketer. Each of these little 00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:37.130 incidents just chipped away at that aura of high 00:25:37.130 --> 00:25:39.609 -tech perfection. And finally, there's the competition. 00:25:39.809 --> 00:25:42.009 The thing that actually did solve the last mile 00:25:42.009 --> 00:25:44.410 problem. The electric kick scooter. The simple 00:25:44.410 --> 00:25:47.269 solution. It turns out you don't need a complex 00:25:47.269 --> 00:25:51.009 $5 ,000 self -balancing robot with five gyroscopes 00:25:51.009 --> 00:25:53.529 to go a mile down the road. You just need a board, 00:25:53.710 --> 00:25:57.539 two wheels, a handle, and a battery. It's so 00:25:57.539 --> 00:25:59.359 much cheaper, it's easier to understand, and 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:01.420 if the battery dies on a kick scooter? You just 00:26:01.420 --> 00:26:03.519 kick. It doesn't throw you on your face. It's 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:06.720 the triumph of simplicity and good enough. So 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:09.140 the Segway PT didn't disappear entirely from 00:26:09.140 --> 00:26:11.519 public life. It just found a very specific niche. 00:26:11.779 --> 00:26:14.839 A very specific and very small niche. Basically, 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:18.220 tourism and security. Segway Tours. A staple 00:26:18.220 --> 00:26:21.740 of tourist -heavy cities like Florence or Paris 00:26:21.740 --> 00:26:25.210 or Washington, D .C. And it makes perfect sense 00:26:25.210 --> 00:26:27.329 in that context. You can cover way more ground 00:26:27.329 --> 00:26:29.650 than walking, you don't get tired, and the tour 00:26:29.650 --> 00:26:32.109 group stays together. And the high price point 00:26:32.109 --> 00:26:34.430 is absorbed by the rental fee. You're not buying 00:26:34.430 --> 00:26:36.289 it, you're just renting it for an hour. Exactly. 00:26:36.569 --> 00:26:39.450 And the other niche was police and private security. 00:26:39.769 --> 00:26:42.339 Right. The source notes that the 2008 Summer 00:26:42.339 --> 00:26:45.200 Olympics in Beijing used special police forces 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:48.220 on segways to patrol the grounds. And the Stockholm 00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:51.700 police adopted the I -2 model in 2018 for patrolling 00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:54.140 the narrow cobblestone streets of the old town. 00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:56.299 So why police? Is it just so they don't have 00:26:56.299 --> 00:26:58.920 to walk as much? It's partly about reducing fatigue 00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:02.579 over a long shift, for sure. But the bigger advantage 00:27:02.579 --> 00:27:05.309 is height. When you're standing on a Segway, 00:27:05.410 --> 00:27:07.609 you're about eight inches taller than everyone 00:27:07.609 --> 00:27:09.910 else. Ah, that makes sense. A commanding view. 00:27:10.029 --> 00:27:12.250 You have a commanding view of the crowd, and 00:27:12.250 --> 00:27:15.410 just as importantly, the crowd can see you. It 00:27:15.410 --> 00:27:17.490 provides a certain kind of authority and presence 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:20.609 that walking... Or even riding a bicycle doesn't. 00:27:20.630 --> 00:27:22.910 And they even marketed them to emergency medical 00:27:22.910 --> 00:27:26.089 services. Yeah, in 2011. The idea was for first 00:27:26.089 --> 00:27:28.589 responders to get through dense crowds at a concert 00:27:28.589 --> 00:27:31.809 or a marathon quickly. So it found a home where 00:27:31.809 --> 00:27:34.450 standing higher and moving efficiently without 00:27:34.450 --> 00:27:37.650 getting tired were worth that $5 ,000 price tag. 00:27:37.829 --> 00:27:39.589 But that was never going to be the mass market 00:27:39.589 --> 00:27:41.589 revolution they had promised. Not even close. 00:27:41.849 --> 00:27:44.450 So the PT is gone. But as we said at the start, 00:27:44.589 --> 00:27:47.309 the Segway brand is very much alive and kicking. 00:27:47.980 --> 00:27:50.779 This brings us to Section 5, Segway Lives On. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.779 This is all the Ninebot influence. They successfully 00:27:53.779 --> 00:27:56.799 pivoted the brand from being about a single revolutionary 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.339 product to being a broad mobility manufacturer. 00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:02.359 Let's look at the modern product lineup, because 00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:05.119 it is wildly different from Dean Common's original 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:07.940 vision. It is unrecognizable. First, you have 00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:10.259 the consumer scooters that are sort of related 00:28:10.259 --> 00:28:13.920 to the original, the Ninebots by Segway E+. And 00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:16.140 the Mini PRO. The Mini PRO is interesting. That's 00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:17.900 the one without the handlebar, right? Right. 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:20.980 It's a smaller, self -balancing scooter. But 00:28:20.980 --> 00:28:23.000 instead of a big handlebar, it just has a knee 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:24.819 control bar in the middle. I've seen those. You 00:28:24.819 --> 00:28:26.980 kind of steer it with your knees. Exactly. You 00:28:26.980 --> 00:28:30.160 lean into it with your knees to turn. It's the 00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:32.559 spiritual successor to the PT, but it's much 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:35.920 smaller, much lighter, and drastically cheaper. 00:28:36.099 --> 00:28:37.819 And then there are the kick scooters, the ones 00:28:37.819 --> 00:28:39.900 we see on every street corner in every major 00:28:39.900 --> 00:28:43.569 city. Yep. The GT1, the GT2, they call these 00:28:43.569 --> 00:28:45.269 super scooters. They're high speed, high performance. 00:28:45.789 --> 00:28:48.670 And the ZT3 Pro. This is where the sales volume 00:28:48.670 --> 00:28:51.349 is now. This is what people actually buy to commute. 00:28:51.589 --> 00:28:54.289 And they also kept the robotics dream alive just 00:28:54.289 --> 00:28:56.750 a little bit. Just a tiny bit. There's the Segway 00:28:56.750 --> 00:28:59.390 robot, which is basically a mini PRO with a head 00:28:59.390 --> 00:29:02.529 and arms. And Lumo, which is this little robot 00:29:02.529 --> 00:29:04.890 companion that you can also ride. Bit of a novelty. 00:29:05.130 --> 00:29:07.269 But here is the pivot that really surprised me 00:29:07.269 --> 00:29:09.420 when I was looking at the source material. Power 00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:12.640 Sports. Segway is now making farm equipment. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.220 Basically. In February 2022, they officially 00:29:16.220 --> 00:29:19.119 entered the UTV market utility terrain vehicles. 00:29:19.400 --> 00:29:21.720 So we are talking about those four wheeled buggies 00:29:21.720 --> 00:29:24.359 you see on farms or on trails like a Polaris 00:29:24.359 --> 00:29:27.359 or a Can -Am. The exact same market. They have 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:30.779 ATVs, all terrain vehicles like the AT5 and AT6. 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:33.880 They have SSVs, which are side by sides. And 00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:35.509 check out the names they're using. Right. You 00:29:35.509 --> 00:29:37.069 mentioned this. They have a model called the 00:29:37.069 --> 00:29:39.950 Supervillain. The Supervillain. That is a long, 00:29:39.990 --> 00:29:41.849 long way from the friendly human transporter. 00:29:41.970 --> 00:29:45.730 The SX20 Supervillain Hybrid. It's a high -performance, 00:29:45.890 --> 00:29:48.650 aggressive off -road machine. And dirt bikes. 00:29:48.829 --> 00:29:51.470 And electric dirt bikes. The dirt e -bike X160 00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.529 and X260. And full -on electric motorcycles like 00:29:55.529 --> 00:29:58.529 the Zyber and the E300 SE. This was so fascinating. 00:29:58.769 --> 00:30:01.410 They went from... We are going to save the environment 00:30:01.410 --> 00:30:04.569 and redesign cities with this gentle, silent, 00:30:04.670 --> 00:30:07.329 balancing transport, too. Let's tear up some 00:30:07.329 --> 00:30:09.789 dirt trails on a machine called the supervillain. 00:30:09.809 --> 00:30:12.589 It's a complete and total reinvention. They took 00:30:12.589 --> 00:30:15.369 the valuable parts, the battery tech, the motor 00:30:15.369 --> 00:30:17.970 tech, and the brand recognition, and they applied 00:30:17.970 --> 00:30:20.049 it to markets that actually existed and were 00:30:20.049 --> 00:30:22.289 willing to pay for performance. So they stopped 00:30:22.289 --> 00:30:24.569 trying to create a new human behavior balancing 00:30:24.569 --> 00:30:27.690 on a sidewalk and started serving existing behaviors 00:30:27.690 --> 00:30:30.019 like riding dirt bikes. and commuting on kick 00:30:30.019 --> 00:30:32.740 scooters. A much smarter business strategy, it 00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:35.470 turns out. So let's bring this all home. The 00:30:35.470 --> 00:30:38.470 outro. We've gone on this journey from the secret 00:30:38.470 --> 00:30:41.390 code name Ginger, the bigger than the Internet 00:30:41.390 --> 00:30:45.089 hype, to the big reveal in Bryant Park. We've 00:30:45.089 --> 00:30:47.230 seen the incredible engineering of the inverted 00:30:47.230 --> 00:30:50.230 pendulum, those aerospace grade BAE systems, 00:30:50.450 --> 00:30:53.630 gyroscopes. We saw the truly tragic death of 00:30:53.630 --> 00:30:56.109 Jimmy Heselden, which cast such a dark cloud. 00:30:56.269 --> 00:30:58.890 And finally, the acquisition by Ninebot and the 00:30:58.890 --> 00:31:01.710 pivot to kick scooters and ATVs. You know, it's 00:31:01.710 --> 00:31:03.559 a journey that really validates. what steve jobs 00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:06.539 said later on he initially bought the hype but 00:31:06.539 --> 00:31:08.680 then he famously said he thought it sucked right 00:31:08.680 --> 00:31:11.900 he criticized the design but crucially he criticized 00:31:11.900 --> 00:31:14.539 that upscale price point and he turned out to 00:31:14.539 --> 00:31:17.900 be 100 right the technology was amazing but the 00:31:17.900 --> 00:31:20.059 product market fit just wasn't there at five 00:31:20.059 --> 00:31:22.359 thousand dollars but and this is the key takeaway 00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:25.980 for me the segway pt might be gone but its dna 00:31:25.980 --> 00:31:28.640 is absolutely everywhere absolutely the segway 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:31.599 pt paved the way The battery technology, the 00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:34.000 efficiency of the electric motors, the very idea 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:37.079 of personal electric mobility in a city Segway 00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:39.819 started that entire conversation. The electric 00:31:39.819 --> 00:31:42.200 scooter boom that we see in cities today, you 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:44.160 know, the birds and the limes and all the privately 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:47.299 owned scooters. That exists in the wake of the 00:31:47.299 --> 00:31:49.819 Segway. It does. It normalized the idea. The 00:31:49.819 --> 00:31:53.519 brand Segway is now, ironically, more associated 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:56.279 with the electric kick scooters you see on every 00:31:56.279 --> 00:31:58.779 corner than the two -wheeled chariot that Dean 00:31:58.779 --> 00:32:01.799 Kamen originally invented. And in a way, you 00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:04.259 could argue that's a kind of victory. The mission 00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:06.779 of changing urban transport ultimately succeeded, 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:09.059 even if the original vehicle failed to do it. 00:32:09.140 --> 00:32:11.140 Which brings us to our final thought for you, 00:32:11.259 --> 00:32:13.700 the listener. The Segway was supposed to solve 00:32:13.700 --> 00:32:17.250 the last mile problem. It failed. But 20 years 00:32:17.250 --> 00:32:20.029 later, electric kick scooters solved it using 00:32:20.029 --> 00:32:23.029 much, much simpler technology. So here's the 00:32:23.029 --> 00:32:25.630 question we want to leave you with. Is it better 00:32:25.630 --> 00:32:29.029 to be the pioneer who invents the complex, perfect, 00:32:29.170 --> 00:32:33.170 over -engineered machine, the Segway PT? Or is 00:32:33.170 --> 00:32:34.869 it better to be the one who comes along later 00:32:34.869 --> 00:32:38.039 and simplifies it for the masses? the kick studer. 00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:40.460 Because sometimes revolutionary is just code 00:32:40.460 --> 00:32:42.680 for too early or maybe just too complicated. 00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:45.099 Sometimes the simple broomstick is better than 00:32:45.099 --> 00:32:47.440 the balancing robot. That's all for this deep 00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:49.140 dive. Thanks for listening. Stay curious.