Could "IT" change the way you travel ?

[RAM MAN]

see the guy in the background ? (NO - its not me)



He is riding the last thing - and its called "IT"

ok ok ok - Officially, its called "Segway" (aka "Ginger)

anyway

The inventor Dean Kamen, ..."believes the Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy." He imagines them everywhere: in parks and at Disneyland, on battlefields and factory floors, but especially on downtown sidewalks from Seattle to Shanghai. "Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town." In the future he envisions, cars will be banished from urban centers to make room for millions of "empowered pedestrians"

here's the link from TIME Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...86660,00.html#

what do you think ?

a consumer model is expected to go on sale for about $3,000 !?!?!?

[ooo14]

When I saw this post, I immedeatly thought of the "it" featured on South Park. For some sick reason, the attached article leads me to belive that this real "it" dosn't operate any diffrently.
ooo14

[SUN RA KAT]

I'd rather be protected by 5500 pounds of Ram - I've seen how people drive & they don't walk much better. Can you imagine thousands of people driving to a parking lot and getting their IT out of a rented storage locker and getting on the sidewalk with everyone else.

Some will be...
...going too fast.
...going too slow.
...putting on makeup.
...eating breakfast.
...drinking coffee.
...drinking beer.
...dialing their cell phone.
...talking on their cell phone.
...stupid
...stoopid
...stupid beyond belief, with intentions of getting a Darwin Award
...etc.

But, if IT carches on, this might be a good time to be a personal injury lawyer.

[Gary]

The guy is driving forward and looking to the side. Can't you see a few thousand of these vieing for sidewalk space? The lawyers are salivating already!!

[Maxwedge]

The only problem I can see is...winter and rain and try driving 35 miles on a skateboard..
I Doubt if its going to be as big as they suggest..
Maxwedge

[SUN RA KAT]

I just saw IT on TV - Cable News Headlines - and they said it goes 12 MPH (you know someone will have to soup it up!), has a computer and gyroscopes, and sells for $3000. The computer detects objects around you while your "driving" IT and changes your direction to avoid collisions. The computer also computes where you want to go and computes the route that it takes you.
It does get great gas mileage, though, because it runs on electricity! And only cost pennys per trip. I'm still sticking with The Mighty Dodge!

[ooo14]

The first bik....err "it" stand that I see I think that I am going to have to ram them. I don't want anything that thinks for me while driving. What if a mental case gets behind the wheel, handle, joy-stick, or whatever that thing has, how will it perform then.
ooo14

[Stoga]

Originally posted by SUN RA KAT
I just saw IT on TV - Cable News Headlines - and they said it goes 12 MPH (you know someone will have to soup it up!), has a computer and gyroscopes, and sells for $3000.

Hmm, so you take someone either handicapped or who doesn't walk to well, and give them a device that goes 12 mph and sells for 3K$
How long before you think that IT jacking takes the place of car jacking for a quick 3 grand profit, in the big citys? You sure can't outrun an ITjacker doing 12 mph! I see 2 other problems, the first time IT meets a pedestrian, and the first time a car meets IT.
I'm with Sun Ra Kat, I'd rather be driving 5500 pounds of Ram or even 2400 pounds of Plymouth Breeze before I'd venture out in the city on that glorified skateboard. It's neat, but I think it is at best, still just a toy.

[Ram-N-Time]

"IT" should have been designed like the one on South Park. HMMMMM maybe not, if “IT” was we would never get our women back L