Segway

Ranging from the simple, like publicly available electric bikes and moving sidewalks, to the more futuristic, like a personal helicopter backpack and personal maglev car/pods, a new vision breaks down the future of public transportation.

In the latest issue of European Union Infrastructure Magazine, it features the pros, cons and feasibility of implementing the world's most advanced public transportation system.

Good news for the elderly, clowns, obese tourists, and the very, very lazy: Honda has released a new, motorized unicycle that functions the same way as a Segway. The super light U3-X personal mobility system is perfect for those who are too lazy for the standing that a Segway requires.

If a Segway and a foldable scooter got together, they might hope to conceive something like the YikeBike mini-farthing. The foldable electric bike resembles a sleek, futuristic upgrade of the old high-riding bicycles, and it can fold up for easy storage under a desk or in a cupboard.

As much as there is to like about the Segway, it’s not the most practical option out there – it’s bulky and expensive. The Orbis Urban Mobility Vehicle, on the other hand, could do a lot to make scooting a smidge more plausible. The Orbis’ polycarboate-and-aluminum body weighs 25 pounds to the Segway’s 105. The scooter rides around 13mph on its one wheel.

Worried about balancing? Don’t be. The Orbis uses gyroscopes to keep itself upright. Its balancing system and motor are lithium-ion-powered.

The external-combustion engine predates its internal-combustion counterpart by nearly a century. Internal combustion won out for modern automobiles by way of its more robust production of horsepower and torque. But Segway inventor Dean Kamen is working up several new uses for the venerable Stirling external-combustion engine. The latest is a electric generator that can use almost anything that burns as fuel. It's the centerpiece of a new hybrid-electric scooter that may never need recharging.

Is it the car of the future? The Segway of the future? An idea destined to go nowhere? Something in between? Today GM unveiled the PUMA, a two-wheeled city vehicle built in collaboration with Segway. PUMA stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, and the idea is to create a small, highly maneuverable mini-car ideal for congested cities where the traffic is slow and the parking is nonexistent.

Segway users, look behind your shoulder. Another “personal transport assistant” is waiting in the wings.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are developing child-sized, wheeled robots that could soon start helping elderly people in their homes. Computer scientist Rod Grupen, who led the team that developed uBot-5, notes that robots are finally safe and inexpensive enough to perform a real function in homes. The robot has an LCD screen, a webcam, and a wireless connection to the Internet. It speeds around and balances on two Segway-like wheels. If it does happen to fall, though, uBot-5 uses its long arms to do a push-up, and return itself to an upright position.

I’ve just stepped onto the factory floor at Segway world headquarters in Bedford, New Hampshire, when two engineers sporting matching jeans (tapered), shirts (plaid) and hairlines (receding) glide by and shoot me matching expressions (grins). “Doesn’t anyone walk around here?” I ask, as the distinctive, almost melodic hum of the Human Transporter (HT) trails off. Segway development engineer David Robinson responds with a different expression, this one more quizzical than the one on his colleagues’ faces. “Would you?” he asks.

Chris Pesa is one of the first people to put the Segway Human Transporter (a.k.a. It, Ginger, and the Invention That Will Change the World) to a real-life test on his 390-stop mail route in Tampa, Florida. We caught up with him to see how it works.