Raymond, I like to walk and when walking around Los Angeles and San Diego and Escondido and even Noo Yawk and Washington, where one would think pedestrians would crowd because there's a limit to how many cars can fit in a city, I cannot recall being impeded by the numbers of pedestrians.
On the contrary, it's an unnervingly solitary enterprise leading one to think that heavily-armed constabulary are likely to threaten death by heavy artillery if one doesn't lie face down on the pavement to be arrested and hauled off to Guantanamo Bay for Rudolf Hess style incarceration.
SUVs and millions of tonnes of other forms of metal roar past. It seems eerily as though there are not actually any humans. It's quite a different experience in India, where humans are very definitely present and it's easier to walk single file than side by side with a friend.
In the USA, people enthusiastically sue. People also have cellphones for calling police.
So, combine all that and Segways on footpaths would not be a problem. They would be a solution. Any attacks by Segways would be non-fatal and mostly involve smashed ankles, elbows and the occasional head as pedestrians are flipped backwards when their feet are swept out from under them. Usually, they'd crash into the Segway rider, so there wouldn't be major head impact onto ground.
Then, they could sue the Segway rider for millions. So it's not going to happen to any significant extent. The police could be called by the pedestrian, using their CDMA 1xRTT phone, complete with digital camera which could record the idiot on the Segway, the damage, the machine, surroundings etc.
The Segway, along with CDMA, will dramatically improve the world. They both need methanol or ethanol fuel cells though, to get enough stamina. The Segway also needs a few design improvements - it's a bit 20th century in the engineering.
It needs obstacle detection and avoidance, better drives [using Fisher & Paykel SmartDrive technology - the wheel would be the motor], more smarts in the control systems, gpsOne built in, along with communications via 1xRTT, no handlebar; if somebody can stand by themselves, they don't need the handlebar, just hop on and go.
Mqurice |
