A closer look
Dean Kamen hyped the invention of the Segway so aggressively in 2001 that tech billionaires genuinely predicted cities would completely redesign their infrastructure just to accommodate the two-wheeled balancing stick. Silicon Valley famously claimed the device would be as big a deal as the personal computer, while venture capitalists threw millions of dollars at the supposedly revolutionary personal transport vehicle. The grand vision was that millions of urbanites would abandon their cars to effortlessly glide down sidewalks, permanently solving congestion and urban pollution with a single elegant machine. Instead, the incredibly dorky aesthetics and prohibitive price tag instantly relegated the Segway to becoming the ultimate status symbol for lazy mall cops and chaotic tourist groups taking up the entire sidewalk. The vehicle completely failed to change the world, though it did succeed in providing endless entertainment whenever an overconfident rider face-planted into a bush
