--- title: "Segway Is No Longer Making Its Famous Two-Wheeled Scooter" description: "The Segway — from those annoying city tours — is finally ending production after being announced in the year 2001, Fast Company reports." date: "2020-06-23" modified: "2020-06-23" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/segway-obituary" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "electric scooter" - "electric scooters" - "Segway" --- # Segway Is No Longer Making Its Famous Two-Wheeled Scooter ![The Segway — from those annoying city tours — is finally ending production after being announced in the year 2001, Fast Company reports.]() *\Image: Image via Pxfuel/Victor Tangermann\* It was meant to revolutionize the transportation industry. But after more than a decade of derision and ridicule, Segway's stand-up, two-wheeled scooter is no longer. The Segway — in 2020, synonymous with the mall cop and those annoying city tours — is finally ending production, [*Fast Company* reports](). When it was first announced in 2001 — the year of the iPod, the Xbox, and Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" — the Segway, which you could control just by leaning, seemed futuristic. Now, its demise seems like it's been a long time coming. Only 140,000 Segways had been sold over 19 long years — not exactly a booming business. Speaking of booming business, e-scooters and e-bikes have taken the lion's share of the industry since then. Remember ["hoverboards?"]() Even those sold like hotcakes. But the company's eponymous ugly duckling didn't survive. The PT, the company's latest iteration, is big and heavy. Its design has barely changed, as *Fast Company* points out. Heck, you've probably never even heard of it. Making matters worse, it was tricky to even drive (ride?) the damn thing — something Segway itself was painfully aware of. "Kick scooters are taking off, and retroactively," Tony Ho, VP of global business development at Segway, told *Fast Company*. "There’s a reason the kick scooter is the dominant form factor now, precisely because it’s simple and easy to learn. There’s no learning curve." That lack of intuitive interface could even be dangerous. In 2010, the company's then-owner died after accidentally [driving one of the company's scooters off a cliff](). Despite its shortcomings, the "Segway" will forever be enshrined in the history books of technological also-rans of the 21st century. Whether it was part of what drove innovation in transportation forward is a different matter. Perhaps the Segway rolled so that the e-scooter could zoom. The Segway is survived by the company's [Ninebot](), a two-wheeled self-balancing scooter, and the [Electric Drifts](), a bizarre and death-defying take on motorized roller skates. It will be sorely missed. **READ MORE:** [Exclusive: Segway, the most hyped invention since the Macintosh, ends production]() **More on motorized transportation:** *[Watch a Hoverbike-Riding Cop in Dubai Wipe Out Catastrophically]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()