If you think hoverboard (not the BTTF kind of hoverboard, btw) is not challenging and/or dangerous enough to ride on, here’s a good news: Segway newest self-balancing electric roller called Segway Drift W1 e-Skates might just satisfy your needs. Segway Drift W1 is the company’s take of roller skates. Oh, wait. Or was it the company’s take on the hoverboard? No, it can’t be. It already has the Segway mini which is pretty much a hoverboard of sort.
Anyways, it must be the company’s philosophy to design personal transporters with no more than wheels because, while the Drift W1 is obviously roller skates, each pair has no more than two wheels. That’s right. Each skate has just one wheel because, self-balancing is cool? As if balancing with two lower limbs together is not challenging enough, the Drift W1 wants you to balance each leg individually. Like the post title said, it is very much like the hoverboard, but separated.
Just imagine taking a regular hoverboard and cut it into half. That’s what the Drift W1 is really about. It is not quite skates because, it does not appear to have any strap to secure your feet to each device; you just step on it like the hoverboard. Already, I feel like it is a challenge for most. And it may very well be. Just take a look at the promo video below and see how awkward the two beautiful models are on them. They are trying very hard to make it feel as natural as possible.
Little is know about these skates, but it does not take a genius to guess that they uses Segway’s self-balancing technology because the New Hampshire company is totally obsessed with self-balancing tech. Segway is confident that e-Skates will be the next big thing in 2018 because, it is all about fun and coolness. Ya, right. Fun and coolness only after you learn not to fall off and surviving smashing your head on the hard surfaces, or doing one too many splits. Just saying…
Segway will be offering accredited press a preview of the Segway Drift W1 at this year’s IFA on August 30 at 10AM (at Hall 26, booth #225). By then, more info should be available (like we needed more…). Keep going for the aforementioned promo video.
Images: Segway UK.