Here’s How Scooter Startups Solved the Segway Problem

It was 17 years ago that inventor Dean Kamen rolled his Segway onto the set of Good Morning America and into the annals of entrepreneurial infamy. Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos were ebullient at the time about the market opportunity for the electric, two-wheeled vehicle. Doerr predicted that Segway would hit $1 billion in sales as fast as any company in history.

He was notoriously wrong about that. With an original price tag of $5,000 to cover all those expensive motors and gimbals (turns out humans are pretty good at balancing all by themselves), the Segway didn’t make it beyond mall cops, tourist companies and the punchline of jokes. But were Kamen and Co. just ahead of their time on two-wheeled personal transportation and its potential to relieve traffic and remake cities?