back to article Segway bought by former patent spat adversary Ninebot

Ninebot, the company Segway recently tried to sue, has bought Segway thanks to a cash injection from mobile and media company Xiaomi. Beijing-based Ninebot makes a range of one and two-wheeled personal transporters, but in the past has claimed to be different to Segway in that Ninebot products will work for people who fall …

  1. Alan Bourke

    Found favour

    with mall security and police who are too lazy and fat to walk as far as I can see.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: Found favour

      I've recently seen them(or a reasonable facsimile) in a hospital. The rider looked to be a facility engineer.

      Your comment reminds me of the beginning of Men in Black... well played!

    2. ItsNotMe
      Unhappy

      Re: Found favour

      ...with mall security and police who are too lazy and fat to walk as far as I can see.

      And maybe too much favor with one Jimi Heselden. Poor bastard.

  2. Bob 18

    Ah yes, the Copenhagen Wheel --- another highly innovative product that will go "blip" on the tranportation landscape. The Copenhagen Wheel does nothing more than take energy from you when you're going downhill, and give it back uphill. A REAL e-bike gives you extra energy without taking away from you. And decent e-bikes can be had for $1500. It's hard to see why people invent this stuff, when more useful devices are already mass-produced in China.

    1. dorsetknob
      Devil

      why invent ?

      It's hard to see why people invent this stuff, when more useful devices are already mass-produced in China.

      They """ Invent it and patent it in the USA """

      So that they can go to East Texas and Sue every one else

      Prior Art and patent be Dammmed This is the USA all your Shit belongs to US............A

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: why invent ?

        They can patent it in the USA if they like. Won't do them much good. A US patent applies in the US. It doesn't apply in China, so won't apply to a Chinese company manufacturing in China and selling in China. "They" would need a Chinese patent for that.

        I think the USA isn't a large potential market for electric bikes compared to China or India, for example, so a US patent might not even make its costs back.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "The Copenhagen Wheel does nothing more than take energy from you when you're going downhill, and give it back uphill"

      Sounds great.

      1. Muscleguy

        Only if you live on top of a hill and commute down it. I spent five teenage years cycling 5 miles to school and five back. I started by cycling up a steep 200metre hill. The down the other side. The road to school, after a long flat straight rose gradually to a much lower height.

        Oh and for the first three years I got up at 05:30 and cycled up that hill to do a paper run. The downhill braking was episodic as I stopped to deliver papers.

        All this cycling was good low impact muscle and CV conditioning for a distance running career. I would cycle home and then run up to 14 miles over those volcanic ridges. Power assist would have robbed me of all that conditioning.

        1. Crazy Operations Guy

          @muscleGuy

          You do realize that you're sounding like the stereotypical old crotchety grandpa "Back in my day, I had WALK to school and it was uphill BOTH WAYS. Kids these days are so lazy, they don't know how easy they have it..."...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @muscleGuy

            "You do realize that you're sounding like...."

            He does, doesn't he?

            But then again, he's posting as "muscleguy", and its possible that he's one of those hard-as-nails, bald-as-a-coot bastards who appear to be severely pyschotic due to a diet comprised solely of protein supplements and steroids. If that's the case I'd just like to say how much I agree with his comments, and that I'm on my way out already.

  3. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
    WTF?

    I must be missing something

    <This led to the codenames Fred and Ginger for the iBot and Segway respectively, because iBot was “Fred upstairs”.>

    Am I the only one this sentence doesn't make sense to?

    To me it reads like the iBot is codenamed "Fred", yet Segway is codenamed "Ginger" because iBot is "Fred upstairs"? Don't get it. Is iBot "Fred" or "Fred upstairs"?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I must be missing something

      "This led to the codenames Fred and Ginger for the iBot and Segway respectively"

      It couldn't be much clearer?

    2. Eddy Ito

      Re: I must be missing something

      Seems easy enough, the iBot was Fred Upstairs after Fred Astaire and shortened to simply Fred. The Segway came after and was called Ginger, presumably for Ginger Rogers. I agree that the sentence is a bit awkward and certainly doesn't explain where Mary Ann and the seven dwarfs fit in.

      1. VinceH

        Re: I must be missing something

        "Seems easy enough, the iBot was Fred Upstairs after Fred Astaire and shortened to simply Fred. The Segway came after and was called Ginger, presumably for Ginger Rogers."

        It only seems easy enough if you already knew what it meant. The sentence as written is nonsense because it includes circular reasoning - it reads that they got their codenames because one of them had a particular name. You can take the second out and it becomes an explanation that the iBot's codename was Fred because it was Fred Upstairs. It's silly.

        This page (because I looked it up myself when I hit that strange sentence) makes things clearer. It explains that "The iBOT's code name was "Fred" or "Fred Upstairs" for the ability of the balancing and stair-climbing wheelchair to give the user the agility of the famous dancer, Fred Astaire."

        So it wasn't called Fred because it was Fred Upstairs, after all - and that then leaves us with the Segway being called Ginger because the iBot was called Fred or Fred Upstairs.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I must be missing something

          "The iBOT's code name was "Fred" or "Fred Upstairs" for the ability of the balancing and stair-climbing wheelchair to give the user the agility of the famous dancer, Fred Astaire."

          I think you'll find it was just Rhyming Slangas used in the UK rather than a metaphor. Upstairs -> Fred Astaire (Like Curry -> Ruby Murray).

          It's quite often how these names come about.

          1. Mark 85
            Coat

            Re: I must be missing something

            dancer, Fred Astaire."

            I think you'll find it was just Rhyming Slangas used in the UK rather than a metaphor. Upstairs -> Fred Astaire (Like Curry -> Ruby Murray).

            Nope.. not Ryming Slang at all. Just a play on words. Fred Astaire --> Fred Upstairs. Ginger because Ginger Rogers was his favored dancing partner in the movies. Which goes to the old joke: Who was the better dancer.. Ginger or Fred? Why Ginger of course. She did everything Fred did but did it backwards.

            I'll get me coat....

  4. D@v3

    segway

    I remember the first time i saw one, it was bombing through town (late in the evening) i was quite impressed.

    I also remember the second time i saw one in the wild, i was almost knocked down by some 'person' doing about 15mph down a pavement barely wide enough for a single pedestrian, i was far from impressed.

    1. FlyingPhil

      Re: segway

      Nice story, except that it couldn't possibly have happened quite as you describe.

      Firstly, the maximum speed of the Segway PT is 12.5mph/20km/h, not the 20% faster speed you estimated of 15mph/24km/h.

      Secondly, as an experienced Segway PT rider I can tell you that there is no way someone would ride down a pavement "barely wide enough for a single pedestrian" at anywhere near maximum speed, for a variety of reasons, so your speed estimate must have been way, way off.

      Keeping in mind that the Segway PT is only as wide as a person's shoulders, so takes up only as much space as a person on a pavement, the reasons you cannot ride down such a narrow pavement at such high speeds include: the dangers of blind doorways and driveways; needing to carefully pass by or around common obstacles such as sign posts, potholes, rubbish cans, etc, that simply cannot be negotiated at such speeds; and finally just that it is impolite to do so - in my experience, people who use Segway PTs in public places are very aware of and considerate towards others around them.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

    A lot of computing power utilitised to balance an unstable device for .... what reason? What can it do that other wheeled transport that don't require all the gyroscopes can't?

    I know - instead of having the wheels side by side how about putting them one in front of the other? Then drive one of them using pedals and a chain. Its a crazy idea but might just work!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

      Your proposed linear wheel bio-feedback cybernetic transport system may have a problem with lateral stability when stopped. An obvious solution would be for the operator to always keep moving in the face of red lights, crossing traffic with right-of-way and pedestrians.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

      Neatly summed up by this page:

      http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_complicated_than_it_needs_to_be

    3. TeeCee Gold badge
      Meh

      Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

      Maybe the Segway has fans 'cos it's permissible to ride one without dressing as a day-glo shrinkwrapped sack of King Edwards and covering oneself in flashing lights.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

        They also work well if you have a mobility disability and are in a place with a lot of walking, such as an amusement park. Less bulky than wheelchair and the rider is standing up so they can see what others see. My wife is a candidate and a fan (we don't own one) since she has an artificial leg and it got her about a park last year. She had a ball without the inconvenience of sitting below everyone else in a wheelchair.

        I can see the cops and security types.... but not much else. Though there are places that rent them and have "Segway Tours" which are like a walking tour but using Segways. Works well for older folks with hip and knee problems.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

      "A lot of computing power utilitised to balance an unstable device for .... what reason? "

      For the reason that riding a Segway is the most marvelous fun. The "off road" ones are particularly fab.

      You remember fun, don't you?

    5. kiwimuso
      Thumb Up

      Re: The segway always was a solution looking for a problem

      They are also used in New Zealand for steadicam platforms for sports events - especially Rugby.

      They troll up and down the sidelines with the operator just using weight transfer to control the Segway. Faster moving than trying to run with a steadicam mounted on you as well, so can follow the action pretty closely.

  6. 's water music
    Coat

    segue

    ...coming up next in the non-stop music hour...

  7. Christian Berger

    Wouldn't it be easier to just convert matter into energy

    and then convert that back to matter?

    Here's a film of that being done in Turkey in the early 1980s.

    https://youtu.be/_dBN5tCqWU0?t=339

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