Segway's 6th Birthday: A Celebration of Under-Achievement

The Onion News Network has a short, but hilarious segment up today; a roundtable discussion on how radically our lives have changed since the introduction of Segway six years ago. They talk about the first time any of them saw a Segway, "I was riding a horse," says one panelist, about "having sex on a Segway" and even "Segway chase scenes" in movies. Most panelists agree that they cannot remember life before the Segway.
 
I'm laughing, you're laughing and somewhere in Manchester, New Hampshire, Dean Kamen is crying. The dungaree-shirt and-pants-wearing- always-Segway-riding maverick inventor never really said that the Segway Human Transporter (formerly known as "It" and "Ginger") would change the world, but he did little at the time to dampen down the hype.
 
Six years later, Segway is a model of innovation. It's in use throughout the world and upgrades have made it more dependable (we all remember stories about riders getting pitched off the rolling platform when the batteries unexpectedly died) more versatile (have you seen the Segway gold-cart?) and easier to use (now you can lean to steer). Even so, Segway remains a niche product that has not, as evidenced by The Onion's razor-sharp (albeit too short) satire, changed anything.
 
Check out the video and then I invite all of you to talk about whether or our society's new-found love-affair with all that's "Green" could help the Segway fulfill its early promise. I know Kamen's out there somewhere riding his Segway and crossing his fingers.