Rarely do new products on the market get a commotion, as happened with the two-wheeled electric self-balancing vehicle known as Segway, a vehicle used for transportation within cities such as a bike, but without a seat on which the passenger sits.
The Segway looks like a lawnmower, and works with small electric motors to transport one passenger standing at a speed of 18 km per hour, and it can suffice to charge its battery to travel a distance of about 50 km, and its inventor claimed that it would eliminate the cars as the cars eliminated the cars drawn by horses .
Corona is not the only reason
Dean Kamen, the inventor of the "Segway Personal Transporter", had predicted that this vehicle would revolutionize transportation and reshape tomorrow's cities, yet in the past two decades Segway seemed to be on its way to fall and collapse.
The Chinese company Ninebot - which is currently making this vehicle - has decided to stop production, which heralds the end of an era of transportation history. "We made the difficult decision to stop producing Segway," said Judy Kai, president of the Chinese company.
Kaye explained that the Corona pandemic made Sigway production and sales more difficult, but it was not the decisive reason for stopping production.
"Over the past few years, we have seen the market become saturated," she said, in other words the demand for the vehicle has eased.
Segway accounts for only 1.5% of the company's sales, which are now focusing on other products, including electric bikes, spoilers and robots.
Stir and keep an eye out
Nobody could have imagined this fall of Segway when he first introduced the potential of this invention in New York in December 2001.
Kamen then published exaggerated propaganda about his latest ideas (Segway) for more than a year, and people speculated about this mysterious invention, and some expected that a skateboard would quickly run on hydrogen fuel, and others imagined it might be a luxurious toilet that is unparalleled, and its time seemed There is no ceiling for expectations and hopes.
The development of this invention cost $ 100 million, and it is finally revealed that it is Segway. As with the inventor, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, he flirted with the skill of the media, providing "Segway the Human Carrier" - as he knew at the time - in the talk shows and events called for by the press.
Obsession with the technology community
Some of the excitement that accompanied the invention can be attributed to the attention paid by tech entrepreneurs in the tech companies, such as Steve Jobs, Apple founder, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.
The Segway was put up for sale at $ 5,000 in 2001, and more than $ 100,000 was offered for the purchase of its first vehicle at an auction held in February 2002.
Segway captured the admiration of some celebrities, such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who was fond of playing polo aboard this vehicle.
The best evidence of Wozniak's obsession with the vehicle is what the American media mentioned, that if Wozniak was stuck on an uninhabited island, and he had nothing but to take one thing with him, it would most likely be Segway.
Good luck and obstacles
Although the tech community is enthusiastic about Segway, its market remains limited to a single segment. For example, the police and security supervisors were admired in the shopping centers, as well as the tourists who are attracted by their simplicity and ease of movement, but the vehicle was not widely received.
Only 140,000 vehicles were sold out of them, as it proved that people are not keen to spend thousands of dollars on a vehicle that does not look elegant, relatively heavy, and ultimately does not exceed the speed of a bike.
However, the vehicle also faced famous pitfalls in the media. Former US President George W. Bush appeared riding it in 2003, to prove that it kept pace with modern trends, but he lost his balance and fell.
Likewise, the world's fastest runner, Usain Bolt, was shocked and knocked to the ground by a cameraman who was riding a Segway during a sporting event in 2015.
British millionaire Jimmy Hesildon bought the company in December 2009, but suffered a tragedy less than a year after it was bought when he fell off a mountain slope aboard Segway and died.
The company, owned by his family, sold the company, produced by Segway, to the US company "Strategic Strategies Investments" in 2013, before being acquired by the emerging Chinese company "Ninebot".
In 2010, the invention ranked first in Time magazine's list of "the 50 worst inventions", unlike the car that was supposed to replace it.
While the company claims to have paved the way for later inventions and products, such as hovercraft or a one-wheel skateboard, Segway's history seems to be full of mistakes, bad luck and also bankruptcy, and therefore it is not surprising that the match did not align itself with the vehicle's commercial activity.
Maybe Segway is gone, but she left us with lots of cute and funny shots that will always remind us of her.