SEGWAY has announced a new product, the S-Pod. It’s a chair on wheels, so basically a wheelchair, that the company hope to launch into airports in 2020 before the machine hit’s the streets.
The S-Pod is controlled by shifting the users bodyweight, you lean forward to accelerate, or back to slow down. In some markets it will feature a seatbelt, and top speeds will be limited. (Incidentally, Segway kept its landmark two-wheeled design for the S-Pod, rather than adding four wheels, because it allows a more adaptive centre of gravity to prevent the S-Pod from tipping.)
The sad thing about this chair on wheels is that it means Segway is really sticking their claims that the Apex electric sportsbike, was really just a design study. and it’s likely the firm has used it as a testbed for machines like the S-Pod. And that makes us all a bit sad at Visordown. The Apex looked, sounded and went like a proper bike should, to us it looked like Segway could have become the Tesla of the motorcycle world. Instead, they’ll be carting fat people around airports.
The original Segway, which debuted in 2001, was supposed to replace walking. Obviously, it didn’t. The two-wheeled, self-balancing device cruised at speeds up to 10mph, and while richly parodied for all sorts of good reasons (what sort of lazy human being would spend $5,000 simply not to walk at walking speed?), it teased a future of lightweight, urban mobility products that are now en vogue with the rise of bike shares and electric scooters.
