The world is full of weird and wonderful inventions that never really took off, with the Segway perhaps one of the most overhyped technologies out there. Invented by Dean Kamen, it was once considered the future of how people would move around towns and cities – and it had plenty of huge supporters.
“If [Kamen] gets what he wants, the company will reach $1 billion in sales faster than any company in history, and it’ll be bigger than the Internet.”
Codename Ginger
Speculation ran wild when these leaked comments by Jon Doerr hit the mainstream media at the start of the 21st century.
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This statement was initially disclosed when a copy of a book proposal by journalist Steve Kemper was leaked to the media and published on the online tech magazine Inside.com. They were centered around an exotic new invention described only as ‘Codename Ginger‘ – but the trouble was that nobody knew what it was.
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What Kamen was working on behind closed doors was, in fact, a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal vehicle that used smart sensors and motors to keep the rider upright. This was the Segway – and, well, we all know how that story ended.
Wheels of time
Some predicted at the time that cities would be redesigned around the Segway – but the product sold less than 150,000 units before production was shuttered. It’s now widely considered the most overhyped invention in history, with high costs and huge regulatory hurdles proving insurmountable obstacles for mass adoption.
The last Segway was actually manufactured as recently as 2020, with the company now transitioning to other forms of transportation, like e-scooters and UTVs. There are still uses in security and in tourism, but it’s largely a redundant technology.
As for Kamen, his most recent venture, DEKA, is focusing its efforts on machines in the biotech space. Specifically, he has recently invented a large-scale regenerative medicine manufacturing and organ preservation system.
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