Skip to main content

Segway announces it will stop making its iconic scooters

Segway scooters will stop production next month, marking the end of an era for the two-wheeled balancing scooter. 

The company will cease production of the scooters on July 15, as first reported by Fast Company. The last-generation scooter to be retired will be the Segway PT. Segway said it is also discontinuing the Segway SE-3 Patroller and the Segway Robotics Mobility Platform. 

Recommended Videos

Since its inception 19 years ago, the Segway scooter has come a long way. Although mostly known for its Segway tours in cities across the country, Segway managed to produce other products as well.

After the company was sold to Ninebot, a Chinese mobility firm, in 2015, for $80 million, products like the Segway Max electric kick scooter, the Segway Ninebot S self-balancing electric transporter, and even Segway’s self-balancing roller shoes, the Drift W1s have been released.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The iconic Segway scooter, however, will be no more, except for those that are already on the streets. Segway said that a limited number of employees will remain at the Bedford, New Hampshire plant to handle warranties and repairs on Segways that have already been sold.

“We are grateful for the support and loyalty of our consumers and are proud of the impact our products have made on our customers’ lives and the reputation of the Segway brand,” Segway said in its official statement. “As we expand into new product categories for personal transportation, our enduring commitment to premium performance and technological innovation will always remain at our core.”

Segway inventor Dean Kamen claimed that the Segway would change the world of transportation forever, but the specialty vehicle never achieved the popularity the company expected. Kamen originally planned to sell 100,000 scooters in the first 13 months. However, only about 140,000 total Segway scooters were sold over almost two decades.

Segway said that last year, the Segway PT scooter only accounted for 1.5% of the company’s revenue. While the Segway has become the salvation of mall security officers and tourists on vacation, it struggled to reach beyond those niche markets.

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Google just gave vision to AI, but it’s still not available for everyone
Gemini Live App on the Galaxy S25 Ultra broadcast to a TV showing the Gemini app with the camera feature open

Google has just officially announced the roll out of a powerful Gemini AI feature that means the intelligence can now see.

This started in March as Google began to show off Gemini Live, but it's now become more widely available.

Read more
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more