A Segway built for two

By DENIS PAISTE, UnionLeader.com, March 24, 2010



BEDFORD – Segway joined General Motors on the stage in Shanghai today to unveil a two-passenger, Segway-powered vehicle that can drive itself, turn on a dime and communicate with others like it to avoid collisions.

Bedford-based Segway, along with partners GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), made the announcement this morning in preparation for the six-month-long Shanghai Expo, where the partners will be demonstrating the Segway-based EN-V electric vehicles 30 times a day.

►Segway.com: The En-V Project

The expo in the teeming Chinese metropolis of 14 million is expected to draw 70 million visitors. GM will have its own pavilion at the global exhibition. The pavilion opens May 1.

Segway's self-balancing, battery-powered drive train was invented by Dean Kamen and unveiled in 2001 with the popular Segway Personal Transport vehicle. The electric, self-balancing Segway PT is a one-person transporter controlled by gyroscopic stabilization and directed by a rider's body movement.

In Shanghai, three different models of the concept two-seater are named Jiao (Pride), Xiao (Laugh) and Miao (Magic). The self-balancing, battery-powered drivetrain systems developed by Segway for Expo demo vehicles can travel up to 25 mph with a range of 25 miles.

A better way?

The new vehicles grew out of Segway's partnership with GM on Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), announced last year.

Chris Borroni-Bird, GM's director of Advanced Technology, said EN-V (Electric Network Vehicles) technology aims to create a solution to vehicle exhaust pollution, urban congestion and parking.

Borroni-Bird said five times as many EN-V vehicles can fit into the same parking footprint as one mid-sized car, such as a Chevrolet Malibu.

"Our solution here is a three-legged stool," he said. "It's an electric vehicle, a networked vehicle, a small-footprint vehicle."

The EN-V boasts zero emissions, is highly maneuverable and brakes by itself.

Clay Dean, director of GM Advanced Design, said the body is made from carbon fiber composites and has a front-opening door.

"We see this explosion of design and graphics and texture which allows the designers to do something very unique . . . which sheet metal would never have allowed us to do," Dean said.

Segway was responsible for the drivetrain mechanism that houses all of the motors and sensors that let the vehicle operate.

The coach systems -- the body of the vehicle -- were developed by General Motors and are attached to the mobility platform developed by Segway.

Because of Segway's electric, self-balancing platform, all the power and drive mechanisms reside under a sliding base. That eliminates any need for a dashboard, steering wheel, gas pedal or other traditional automobile components.

FIRST to Segway

Bedford-based Segway spokesman Eric Fleming is in Shanghai for the unveiling this week. Fleming came to Segway through his participation in the Kamen-inspired FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition as a high school student in Farmington, Conn.

Segway put everything it learned about self-balancing, battery management and other technologies into the EN-V project, Fleming said.

There are challenges. Too fast for sidewalks, too fragile for highways, the new vehicles may be suited to bicycle paths and yet-to-be-created dedicated travel lanes. They also offer the opportunity to bring greater mobility to the elderly and disabled.

General Motors will jointly manufacture vehicles for sale in the Chinese market with SAIC.