One day inventor Dean Kamen saw a young man in a wheelchair struggling to get over a sidewalk. He realized the problem wasn’t an ineffective wheelchair; the world was built for people who could balance. Subsequently, he and his team created the Independence IBOT™️ Mobility System, a self-balancing mobility device that enables users to climb stairs and negotiate uneven surfaces. After that, the thought arose that a balance machine also had far-reaching possibilities for people with full mobility.
Our inspiration for the name Segway came from the word segue, defined as “to transition smoothly from one state to another.” Segway transforms a person into an empowered pedestrian, allowing them to go farther, move more quickly and carry more.”
If you stand up and lean forward, you won’t fall on your face just like that. Your brain knows you are out of balance because the fluid in your inner ear shifts. It triggers you to put your leg forward and stop a possible fall.
The Segway technology does the same thing, except that our vehicles have wheels instead of legs, a motor instead of muscles, a collection of microprocessors instead of a brain, and a set of sophisticated tilt sensors and gyroscopic sensors instead of an inner-ear balancing system. Like your brain, a Segway product knows when you are leaning forward. It turns the wheels at just the right speed to maintain balance, and you’ll move forward.
As a leader in electric mobility, it’s always been Segway-Ninebot’s vision to produce environmentally friendly short-distance transportation alternatives. Today, more and more people are using Segway-Ninebot products as an eco-friendly alternative for many short journeys that are typically made by car. Besides that, zero emissions are given off during operation, allowing you to ride your vehicle indoors.
Ninebot is a privately held company headquartered in Beijing, China. In 2015 Ninebot strategically merged with Segway, headquartered in Bedford, US. The combined company focuses on the research and development, design, manufacturing, distribution, and sales of short-distance transportation products. The combined company has strategic headquarters in the US, The Netherlands, and Beijing, as well as manufacturing centers in the US and China.
Segway and Ninebot are devoted to seamlessly connecting robotic solutions to smartphones and integrating existing technologies and future concepts, such as voice interaction and facial recognition, with their robotic products – products that will be highly interactive and encourage more intelligent living.