RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

Segway pile up!

All Segways have been recalled. Ouch! Seems the auto-balancing scooters are just too hard for some people to ride. President Bush fell off when he tried. This is not a guy to be trifled with, because the Consumer Product Safety Commission answers to him.

Seems that when people ride their Segway after the battery runs low -- when they ignore the battery warning -- the scooter can crash. There's a software upgrade, but what it does isn't described. How much do you want to bet the upgrade simply stops the Segway when its batteries are too low to maintain its balance? So, now, you've got a scooter that stops when it's unsafe, which make sense and, compared to cars, which most folks drive with warning lights flashing sometimes, seem utterly impractical.