Segway Drift W1: Roller Skates Reinvented

In 2001, when rumours about Segway’s ‘Human Transporter’ first leaked, the media was ablaze with speculation: was this new innovation a hoverboard, a helicopter backpack, perhaps even a teleportation device? While the stand-up electric vehicle could never live up to the hype, its self-balancing and tilt-steering technology did eventually give us 2015’s hoverboard craze (although not actual hovering ones, as promised in Back To The Future Part II). But now it’s 2018, and Segway has another vision for our self-propelled future: the e-skate.

The Segway Drift W1 uses the same patented gyroscopic technology as the original Segway (now called the Personal Transporter), only at one-tenth of the size and built into a pair of uniwheeled, foot-sized platforms that you step on rather than strap on (which helps when you need to jump or topple off them). As on the Segway PT or a hoverboard, you tilt your feet to move, turn and brake – the difference here being that you’re riding two self-balancing vehicles capable of travelling in separate directions, just like skates. And that’s the market Segway hopes to appeal to: skaters, dancers, and hip young urbanites with a propensity for gliding around town.

The Drift W1: effectively two miniature Segways that will hopefully be more than twice as successful as their big brother

Each Segway Drift W1 ‘shoe’ can carry a weight of 100kg at 12kph, negotiate a 10° incline, and deliver 45 minutes of powered propulsion. Weighing 3.5kg per skate, they have rubber handles for easy carrying, three illumination modes for night riding (or just showing off), and front and rear bumpers to protect them, but not necessarily you. That responsibility goes to the helmet that Segway delivers free with your $399 (just over £300) pair of e-skates.

segway.com