5 ms·

You mean "Project Ginger" aka "IT"? https://www.wired.com/2001/01/ginger-may-be-motorized-scooter/ https://www.wired.com/2001/01/ginger-may-be-motorized-scoote

• paulcole 3y ago
  lol I didn't realize it had been that long. maybe I was just looking for a bright spot in the world after 9/11?
• browningstreet 3y ago
  Segway worked exactly as advertised. They are still being made and sold. The problem is that the product didn't _mean_ what the company hoped.
  • paulcole 3y ago
    > Segway worked exactly as advertised No. Their PR and marketing was AWFUL to build the level of hype they did around the product they released. If you're releasing a scooter for mall cops and tourists you don't go on Good Morning America to advertise it as a world-changing technology. They advertised the release of a world-changing technology and released nothing like that.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • unsupp0rted 3y ago
      "Entire cities will be redesigned around this new product, which I can't tell you about. But you should try to guess, it'll be fun."
    • laborcontract 3y ago
      I remember the marketing around it. I was so incredibly excited too. They really marketed it as having discovered a room temperature superconductor. Takes me back to a time when you were still able to shroud things with mystique and excitement. The Matrix, Blair Witch Project, and the PlayStation 2 with the emotion engine were all larger than life. Cloverfield was the last of that kind.
  • JohnFen 3y ago
    True, the Segway was not a scam at all. It was just amazingly overhyped and that's what killed it as a consumer product.
• teachrdan 3y ago
  As I recall, the headline on Slashdot that day was, "This is IT?"