RIP Segway
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Created over the course of a decade by Dean Kamen, a man already made impossibly rich by inventing a key technology behind medical IVs in his basement, it was released in December 2001 for $5,000 (the cost of a low-end motorcycle, despite the fact that a Segway’s top speed was 10 mph). At the time, Kamen said it would be “to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy.”
Now, less than 20 years after the first Segway’s release, Fast Company has learned that the Segway brand will retire the last Segway as we know it, the Segway PT. Manufacturing at the Bedford, New Hampshire, plant will stop July 15. A total of 21 employees will be laid off as a result, while 12 will stay on temporarily to handle various matters, including warranties and repairs on the Segways that have already been sold. Five employees working on Segway Discovery scooters will remain. -
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We approved one for industrial use about 16 years ago. There were a lot of volunteers to help with the testing.
Owning one doesn't really make sense, but we rented one in the UK and went out on trails, and it was a lot of fun.