The Trouble with the Segway

July 2009 The Segway hasn't delivered on its initial promise, to put it mildly.

2009 年 7 月 温和地说，Segway 尚未兑现其最初的承诺。

There are several reasons why, but one is that people don't want to be seen riding them.

原因有很多，但其中之一是人们不想被看到骑着它们。

Someone riding a Segway looks like a dork.

骑赛格威的人看起来像个傻子。

My friend Trevor Blackwell built his own Segway , which we called the Segwell.

我的朋友 Trevor Blackwell 建造了他自己的赛格威，我们称之为 Segwell。

He also built a one-wheeled version, the Eunicycle , which looks exactly like a regular unicycle till you realize the

他还制造了一个单轮版本，Eunicycle，它看起来和普通的独轮车一模一样，直到你意识到

rider isn't pedaling.

骑手没有踩踏板。

He has ridden them both to downtown Mountain View to get coffee.

他骑着他们俩去山景城市中心买咖啡。

When he rides the Eunicycle, people smile at him.

当他骑上独轮车时，人们对他微笑。

But when he rides the Segwell, they shout abuse from their cars: "Too lazy to walk, ya fuckin homo?" Why do Segways provoke this reaction?

但当他骑上赛格韦尔时，他们在车里大声谩骂：“懒得走路了，你他妈的同性恋？”为什么赛格威会引起这种反应？

The reason you look like a dork riding a Segway is that you look smug .

你之所以看起来像个骑赛格威的傻瓜，是因为你看起来很自鸣得意。

You don't seem to be working hard enough.

看来你还不够努力。

Someone riding a motorcycle isn't working any harder.

骑摩托车的人并没有更努力地工作。

But because

但因为

he's sitting astride it, he seems to be making an effort.

他跨坐在上面，看上去正在努力。

When you're riding a Segway you're just standing there.

当您乘坐赛格威时，您只是站在那里。

And someone who's being whisked along while seeming to do no work — someone in a sedan chair, for example — can't help but look smug.

而那些看似无所事事却被人快速带走的人——比如坐在轿子里的人——忍不住会显得沾沾自喜。

Try this thought experiment and it becomes clear: imagine something that worked like the Segway, but that you rode with one foot in front of the other, like a skateboard.

尝试一下这个思维实验，结果就会变得很清楚：想象一下像赛格威一样工作的东西，但你用一只脚在另一只脚前面骑行，就像滑板一样。

That wouldn't seem nearly

这看起来几乎不是

as uncool.

不酷。

So there may be a way to capture more of the market Segway hoped to reach: make a version that doesn't look so easy for the rider.

因此，可能有一种方法可以占领更多赛格威希望达到的市场：制作一个对骑手来说看起来不太容易的版本。

It would also be helpful if the styling was in the tradition of skateboards or bicycles rather than medical devices.

如果造型采用滑板或自行车的传统而不是医疗设备的风格，也会很有帮助。

Curiously enough, what got Segway into this problem was that the company was itself a kind of Segway.

奇怪的是，赛格威陷入这个问题的原因是该公司本身就是一种赛格威。

It was too easy for them; they were too successful raising money.

这对他们来说太容易了。他们筹集资金太成功了。

If they'd had to grow the

如果他们必须种植

company gradually, by iterating through several versions they sold to real users, they'd have learned pretty quickly that people looked stupid riding them.

逐渐地，通过迭代他们出售给真实用户的几个版本，他们很快就会发现人们骑着它们看起来很愚蠢。

Instead they had enough to work in secret.

相反，他们有足够的秘密工作。

They had focus groups aplenty, I'm sure, but they didn't have the people yelling insults out of cars.

我确信他们有很多焦点小组，但他们没有人在车外大喊侮辱。

So they never realized they were zooming confidently down a blind alley.

所以他们从来没有意识到自己正在自信地冲进死胡同。