New Segway 'Car'
By Rallon
@Rallon (441)
United States
July 17, 2011 7:47pm CST
General Motors Corp. and Segway Inc. have teamed up to combine their products in making an actual 2-wheeled car! It's pretty neat, in that this new type of vehicle will be smaller, more efficient, all electric, require less insurance to drive, and allows the individual cars to communicate with each other...how futuristic! This allows the car to avoid obstacles (such as people!) They'll be much safer to operate as compare to regular cars. They say it only weighs 300 pounds (that's very light) which means less cost to build. Estimated price per one report is at $10,000 U.S. dollars. I already want one! They look very futuristic indeed. I just wonder if my friends would make fun of me for driving one...oh well, if they do I will return the laugh when they pump dino-fuel (gas) into their vehicle each week. These cars really could change the way we all drive and design our cities. I see mall cops (and others) all the time riding around in their Segways to do their patrols. I wonder if in the future, regular cops will be cruising the streets in a Segway car. If you haven't heard about this new type of vehicle, there is a new story about them on FoxNews. I'm betting that this takes off since gasoline is SO expensive.
Do you want one too? Would you be willing to exchange your old car for this electric, 2-wheeled 'car'? Are giant gas-guzzler SUV's on the way to extinction?
4 people like this
9 responses
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
18 Jul 11
Do you mean the EN-V? They're a bit different from the Segway, as the pictures show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14060276
v-to-v communication is already here anyway. I reckon they would be best in Nevada to start with:
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2546242.aspx
I would have a problem with no boot space, poor towing capacity & inability to have passengers, but it's still a good idea, with autonomous driving, crash avoidance, etc.
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
18 Jul 11
I like the SIM-LEI as well, but they all have their own short-comings. This one has 4WD as standard, goes from 0-100kph in under 5 seconds, goes for 333km without charging, has boot space & passenger space & goes at 150kph.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
18 Jul 11
This sounds really interesting. Are the licensing requirements the same? I have to wonder though, since the cars are smaller than regular cars, I can imagine some idiot driving them on the sidewalks, just like bikes. LOL I certainly hope not.
As for me, I could not get one because I am legally blind, and wouldn't be able to see well enough to drive it.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
18 Jul 11
I do not drive and I am too nervous to ride a bike since I fell off one a couple of times when I was in my teens. But these sound like a good idea. I was thinking of grocery shopping and errands where it is too close to take a bus and too far to walk. I do not know if I could afford one, though, and I also wonder if they would work in our winters where it gets to 40 below.
As for cops, except for those outside, would not sitting on one make them sort of lazy?
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
19 Jul 11
That was one thing that I was bad at parallel parking. That is one reason why I did not want to try to get my license back. It took weeks for me to do it. AT the time, I was considering doing what they do in the movies, crush both cars to get in, but did not want to get arrested. It would not be good for those who have to by large purchases and take them home.
1 person likes this
@Rallon (441)
• United States
18 Jul 11
Yeah, technology in general is making us all that much more lazy. Now, with this technology, we won't even have to be bothered to actually "drive"! They already have the cars that will parallel park themselves. So, now we could just take a nap and wait for the cars to bring us to our destination. Probably will be a while before everyone is using this technology though. I really wonder, however, how safe it will actually be to entrust our safety to computers. That's exactly how the Terminator got us lol.
1 person likes this
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
19 Jul 11
Seems a bit pricey to me. Seeing as it won't have room for groceries or passengers, the bus still seems far more practical and cost-efficient.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
18 Jul 11
Where do I put my groceries and other things I need to go get? That thing would collapse like a paper hat if something were to hit it. I don't like a car "thinking" for me, I'll watch out for myself, thank you.
And where do you get electricity? From coal and other fossil fuels. So what's the big deal about going electric? Why aren't people concentrating on solar if they want so badly to stop polluting?
I certainly hope SUVs are on the way out, at least those huge behemoths that block the view of every other driver on the road. Some people need vehicles that hold more than 5 people, that's true, but most of those huge SUVs are bought for the sake of the ego, not practicality.
1 person likes this
@cerebellum (3863)
• United States
18 Jul 11
The new cars look neat! I think there will be a lot of resistance though. They also probably wouldn't be practicle in some cases. People don't like change. From the article it seems they can't be used around other cars. That will be a problem and it will take a long time for people to get rid of their gas cars. I for one, can't afford a new car, no matter what the cost and I am sure there are a lot of people like me. I hope SUV's will be extinct though, besides being gas guzzlers they block vision for everyone near them.
@Memnon (2170)
•
18 Jul 11
We haven't got a car, but it sounds good to me. Unfortunately there are a diehard group of people who think that SUVs are a status symbol, and will say that it's their constitutional right to use up the world's oil reserves before the next generation can get their hands on it. 
Sih=gn me up for a two wheeled car!
Sih=gn me up for a two wheeled car!