Wraps to come off Ginger(Segway)...Is It A Big Deal?

December 3, 2001

ASSOCIATED PRESS Story About Ginger

NEW YORK -- After months of hype -- some of it true, some of it false -- inventor Dean Kamen is set to unveil the Segway, a one-person, gyroscope-packed, electric-powered scooter that proponents say will transform transportation.

Kamen and his backers have big hopes for the agile Segway, saying the scooter will displace awkward, polluting cars from inner cities, leading to a realigned cityscape that is more people-friendly.

The Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy," Kamen told Time magazine for today's edition. "Cars are great for going long distances. But it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-pound piece of metal to haul their 150-pound asses around town."

In interviews given with a few selected journalists -- all sworn to secrecy until midnight Sunday -- Kamen said the battery-powered devices burn minute amounts of electricity. Kamen's Manchester, N.H., firm DEKA Research and Development will oversee production of the machine.

The two-wheeled Segway, which looks like a cross between an old rotary lawn mower and a Razor scooter, travels at a top speed of 17 miles per hour. According to those who have ridden it, the scooter is difficult to fall from or knock over due to gyroscopes that work to keep it upright.

Riders stand upright over the invention's single axle, navigating with a bicycle-like handlebar. A single battery charge can propel the scooter 17 miles over level ground, with each hour of charge providing power for two hours' use.

The U.S. Postal Service, General Electric and National Parks Service will be the first customers to purchase them, buying 80-pound heavy-duty models for $8,000 apiece, according to Time magazine. A 65-pound $3,000 consumer model won't be available for at least a year.

Kamen was scheduled to unveil the scooter on ABC's "Good Morning America" today. ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Co., has sponsored Kamen's robot-building competitions for students.

From the time plans for the machine were first revealed on a Web site called Inside.com almost a year ago, tantalizing but unsubstantive mentions of the project -- code-named "Ginger" or "IT" -- kept the device in a controlled state of pent-up hype.

Corporate luminaries who'd gotten sneak previews described the machine's impact as "as big as the PC" and "bigger than the Internet."

Time said its article's author was given license to shadow Kamen for three months, on condition of secrecy. Other publications, including the New York Times, were given advance information on the project in return for pledges to secrecy.

The Associated Press was offered an advance look at the invention, but only on the condition it did not release the information until an hour before the "Good Morning America" broadcast.