Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/08/segway-announces-a-new-egg-sha.html
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Presumably, however this is being presented, it’s ultimately intended to be a new type of wheelchair?
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eta: Tsk, I should have looked at the main page. Still thawing out from outside.
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And/or mobility scooter.
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WALL-E aside, it does seem like with a basket these could be an improvement over those little golf cart disability scooters for stores. Those things and shopping carts never quite co-exist well with aisle sizes and these seem a bit smaller and more maneuverable.
Of course it’ll hinge on whether the upper weight limit on this thing can handle the behemoths of Wal-Mart.
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The phrase “hover chair” raises my hopes to fatal-fall heights.
Without a hover chair.
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At 24 mph, I wish caregivers good luck in keeping up with one of these! A relative of mine had a scooter with a maximum speed of 15 mph, and we used it to tour a botanical garden. I really needed a pair of roller skates by the end of the day, so that she could tow me back to the parking lot.
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Just what’s needed: more crowding of disabled spaces. Because unless the stability can be proven (there is a reason wheelchairs are so damned heavy) and you get the full range of upper-body functioning that you can get in a wheelchair (unlikely with a pod-wall to either side), this is not a wheelchair 2.0, but rather another toy for people to zip around in with no awareness of pedestrians. This isn’t a new wheelchair or mobility scooter. It’s a new, expensive and even more stupid Segway.
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So ‘hovering’ now means ‘supported by wheels’? I’m pretty sure words used to have actual meanings back in the day
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Mambo dogface to the banana patch, dude.
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That was the original premise of the hover-chairs in Wall•E too (“With our all-access hover-chairs, even grandma can join in the fun!”) but over the ensuing centuries they became the default method of mobility as humans devolved into morbidly obese infants.
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Understood and agreed - up to a point. Plenty of mobility scooter and wheelchair users roam freely without care-givers in tow (metaphorically or literally).
(Of course, the care-giver’s companion might have more consideration than to speed around like Stirling Moss, when accompanied.) 
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blame hoveround
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I have a friend who boosts electric bikes (modifies, not steals).
I think he could probably boost these too and get them going up over 30 mph.
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In my state, a mobility scooter is OK on the sidewalk, but the bike would have to travel in the street. Those scooter types used by kids are probably making lawmakers crazy, but keeping minors on the sidewalk is less risky for them.
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The terror!
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Can they be used for jousting? Just curious.
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I was thinking the same thing. I have a work friend who uses a wheelchair- I’ll bet that’s better for the distance trips. Like getting from one end of the Airport to the other.
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This will revolutionize the bumper car industry.
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Have mobility scooters advanced along with battery tech, material-science (hi-tech composites), CAD and manufacturing techniques? Think bikes, yachts, electric cars etc. Mobility scooters still look the same. Are they significantly better than they were, say, 20 years ago? A quick google shows they still seem to be powered by 2 x 12V lead-acid batteries.
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