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When they first came out I wanted one to commute to work with it. Then I saw the price. And that was the end of that. $7,000 to $10,000 for one - you can buy
by ars 4y ago
When they first came out I wanted one to commute to work with it.
Then I saw the price. And that was the end of that.
$7,000 to $10,000 for one - you can buy a car, and pay for years worth of gas for that much.
- PaulHoule 4y agoSegway's control of patents let them (for a while) keep similar but better form factors off the market. Every so often you find a case where patents clearly hold back innovation, such as pre-WWI aviation, and the Segway is one of them.
- foobarian 4y agoIt's not that clear cut to me. Without patents, maybe inventors -- both original and follow-on -- would have never bothered investing so much time and treasure, and we would have been behind on average. This is a pretty explicit feature of the patent system. The short delay due to the temporary monopoly is not that important in the grand scheme of things.
- ars 4y agoThat's true, but there is no doubt that Segway held back electric vehicle commuting for 2 decades. Imagine how much less traffic and emissions there would be if Segway had put a reasonable price on their product.