The new Segway is a wheelchair … for able-bodied people

A wheelchair for people with unrestricted mobility, in a nutshell, is the latest creation from Segway-Ninebot, the company behind a series of personal motorized vehicles that have made urban tourism (and others) happy. viral videos of food bowls on social networks).

The machine, called S-Pod, is therefore in the form of a “basket” or an egg-shaped armchair of very comfortable appearance suspended between two large wheels. In fact, the seat that can accommodate a person seated in the sofa position replaces the usual Segway platform in which the passenger stands.

The company says the S-Pod can reach speeds of 38 km / h and works like a motorized wheelchair, allowing its user to sit while moving. It is already compared to the wheelchairs of the Disney film “Wall-E” and the gyrospheres of “Jurassic World”.

Keyboard navigation and no longer with body movements

Like the original Segway, the S-Pod works on two wheels only, but it is “self-balanced”. Instead of asking the user to control it by leaning back and forth, the S-Pod is fitted with a navigation keyboard which allows the vehicle to be steered manually in the desired direction, which will be probably less intuitive and natural but also more reassuring for some users less comfortable with the movements of the pelvis.

According to Segway, the S-Pod that the vehicle is inspired by the gyrosphere vehicles from the 2015 film “Jurassic World” which transport visitors around the amusement park, and would be suitable for use in enclosed spaces such as airports, amusement parks and shopping centers.

The Segway S-Pod will be officially presented at the CES in Las Vegas, which opens next Tuesday. Visitors to the site will be able to try it out, but it won’t be available for sale until 2021 at the earliest.

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