[candeira]

I met some of the people working on regulatory advice so Segways could be used in Europe. This would be about 2003 or 2004, at Campus Party in Valencia, Spain.

The story they told me is that Segway was going to be successful in the USA as a mobility scooter for the elderly, giving range and speed to people who could not walk or cycle far and fast, while not still requiring a traditional wheelchair.

From memory, the strategy was to get the Segway classified as a mobility/accessibility device, which would gain regulatory exemptions and access to funding from public health. They were lobbying the EU with their left hand, and running Segway demonstrations at TV-friendly events like Campus Party with their right hand.

I don't know how much these people believed that this would work in the EU. I didn't believe it. But they weren't getting paid for believing it, nor for persuading me. They were getting paid for telling everyone about it.

[RhysU]

As a summer student in 1999 I saw the Segway's gyroscopic technology evaluated in a stand-up wheelchair form by https://www.herl.pitt.edu/. This research lab sat between the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Veterans Affairs department. The lab still exists.

The wheelchair hit the public as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT. I knew it as "FRED". I have never observed anyone using its equal in terms of mobility capabilities.

As an example of what sort of other stuff HERL did back in the day: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00039...

[candeira]

I saw videos of gyroscopic wheelchairs at the time, and they are as awesome today as I remembered them!

My skepticism was rather about Segway, the product, being useful as a mobility device, and recognised as such by European regulators.

[thesz]

Myy friend, being 33 or so, fell out of Segway, fractured his hip, ruptured an artery in it and almost died from internal bleeding. Now he has fun going through airport security scanners.

I do not think it ever can be classified as a mobility device for elderly.