National
U.S. invention is a souped-up 'scooty'
By Anand Parthasarathy
KOCHI, DEC. 5. After 10 months of unprecedented hype and build-up, a much-touted American invention has finally been unveiled: it is a two-wheeled battery-powered `scooty' - similar in looks to a push-type lawn mover, or those `walkers' that small kids use to take their first steps.
Intense speculation about the invention variously code-named `Ginger' or just `it' by the U.S.-based media, ended on Monday when the machine called the `Segway Human Transporter' was demonstrated on the ABC Breakfast TV show `Good Morning America.'
Dreamed up by Mr. Dean Kamen, a college drop-out who is being hailed as the Thomas Alva Edison of the 21st century, the machine has two wheels - and a gyroscope to maintain balance. Capable of carrying one person (and some luggage) at up to 16 km per hour, the 30-kg transporter runs on batteries which provide around 6 hours of operation for a U.S. cost of 10 cents (Rs. 5). It has no brakes, but speed and direction can be finely controlled by the rider shifting weight or operating a handlebar control.
Mr. Kamen, who had earlier invented a stair-climbing wheelchair and a portable dialysis machine, reportedly spent $100 million on the development which he thinks will help create an ``empowered pedestrian''. He foresees that soon cars will be banned from many city centres which will create the need for personal movement devices like the Segway that will be allowed on the footpaths.
The U.S. Post Office, which employs 1 lakh delivery persons who do their rounds on foot, has acquired 20 of Mr. Kamen's transporters on a trial basis. So have some police departments which are exploring if policemen on the beat would benefit. But will the general public rush in to buy it? The maker has set up a plant that can turn out 40,000 units a month within a year, but the price being suggested - $3000 (Rs. 1.4 lakhs) - is felt to be stiff even by U.S. standards.
In India, cost alone may write off the Segway Transporter: for the price of 2 such battery scooties, you can buy the Reva battery-operated car being manufactured in Bangalore. Two years ago, the Chennai-based TI Cycles announced that it would soon launch a battery-powered bicycle, developed in association with the Chalakudi(Kerala)-based, Eddy Current Controls. But as yet, the machine has not been unveiled except as a prototype.
However, the U.S. inventor's supporters point out that when the Personal Computer first became available two decades ago, it cost the same as the Segway Transporter - $3000 - but today PCs can be had at one fifth of this price. ``Ten years from now, this is how people will get around,'' Mr. Kamen told the Time magazine, which has made the invention its cover story this week in its U.S. editions.
Ironically, in its preoccupation with the Segway this week, the media has all but buried an item that could be even more significant for the future of transportation: the Ford Motor Company, seeing which way the ``hava'' is blowing, has just signed a deal worth $44 million to acquire the technology to run future cars on environment-friendly ``fuel cells'' from a small company called Ballard Power.
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