BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH.....oooooouuuuu...god...Heh...this is funny.

The Jetsons had something like this. didn't they? I want one!

Kool Now How Much???? are they street legal???

Great!! Now I can be just like that dork security guard at the mall!!!

Getting closer and closer to the hovering lounge chairs of Wall-E's world. Is it too much to ask that people occasionally *walk* somewhere?

The problem I see is all we have is it being operated on flat level surfaces. How about a sidewalk; ya know those freaking cracks some have or the expansion joints in them? You get the picture.. How about you whizzing along and hit a little rock; eat ground time??

More proof that the Japanese can't come up with an original idea. The only thing they can do is steal, oops I'm sorry, copy our technology, produce it in sweet shops, and under cut our economy. Wake up America

Wow! I didn't know that the Japanese were forced to work in sweet shops! My candy experiences will never be the same.... At least they can use these cool new devices to move from one assembly belt to another.

Wow! I didn't know that the Japanese were forced to work in sweet shops! My candy experiences will never be the same.... At least they can use these cool new devices to move from one assembly belt to another.

By caj5947 at 7:16 AM ON 08/07/08

More proof that the Japanese can't come up with an original idea. The only thing they can do is steal, oops I'm sorry, copy our technology, produce it in sweet shops, and under cut our economy. Wake up America

That is always the way with Toyota.

You know the Japanese didn't retaliate with bombs and they didn't hold a grudge when we nuked them. They picked themselves up by the bootstraps and kept right on going becoming a successful nation. And when we interned our own Japanese-American citizens, they didn't whine or complain like you CAJ5947, as a culture they dusted off and started over. It's you who should wake up and take a lesson. Any cutting of anything we are doing to ourselves.

The Segway people went to every state in the union to make sure that the Segway would be sidewalk legal and here in Wisconsin you can ride these things pretty much anywhere you can find a sidewalk. These new smaller Japanese versions might become popular because the rider is lower and closer to the sidewalk. People riding on Segways look like oppressive Nazi overlords, unfortunately.

Actually the smaller hands-free one will probably take-off, just as soon as somebody discovers how to pop a wheelie on it.

ah...ok... how does it handle pebbles, pot holes and RoCks? I think you're going to have some stability issues on rough terrain.

2 questions: 1) How RIDICULOUS IS THAT??? If the person who is showing the rider chow to ride can walk FASTER than the transporter, what's the point? 2) What's the weight limit??? Cause if people are gonna be too lazy to WALK, then there a re gonna be a lot of fat people rolling around... BONUS QUESTION) What's the braking capacity? Is it adjustable as one gets fatter??? ;-)

Looks good... and Toyota's got the capital to make a go of it, the distribution network (I mean, come on, Hammacher-Schlemmer? Get real, Kamen), all of the pieces they need to do this. Probably better battery technology, too, which would come in handy.

I saw these in Mad Magazine about 40 years ago.

Once you realise that the Segway was a byproduct of a company designing a wheel chair its not a "segway killer." The segway allowed the company to add funds to help complete the wheel chair development.

http://www.ibotnow.com/functions/balancing.html?from=ggl&ad=stand&WT.srch=1&s_kwcid=standing%20wheel%20chair|847012030&gclid=CLTJ-eec_JQCFQmdnAodCldHrQ

http://www.segway.com/about-segway/who-we-are.php

Nice rip off Toyota... Why don't you make some nice donations to I-Bot and help the disabled.

@DARMOK: good point. Of course, if the servo laws in this thing are as good as Segway's, then rough terrain shouldn't be an issue. I've seen people drive Segways off sidewalk onto clay ruts, with no problem. Nice fat tires should take care of the rock/pot hole problem, but realistically, no one's going offroading on these machines.

What they need to do is get the package size smaller, so that it can be stowed or even carried onboard buses and stuck under the seat. Which implies low weight, which I'm not sure is going to happen if the battery life is enough to be useful. Maybe casters on one side so you can up-end the thing and roll it onto your bus or car.

Toyota, though, has the marketing network to find niche markets for this nifty little toy - onshore transportation which you can stash on a motorboat or a dinghy; you could hide four or five of these in the cargo locker of even a small RV; one or two could fit in the aft storage of a light plane.

And just think how many a cruise ship could carry... sure could enhance the value of those tourist traps scattered all over Creation. Places like Bermuda that strongly discourage four wheeled transport for tourists might be good markets for them, cut down on all the smog from those little put-put cycles they rent to the tourists there.

@radler49 - Yeah! The Shakibutsu 4000! Mad's parody of Mechanix Illustrated... I remember that, too.

You know, the Segway isn't dead. It's very popular in Europe for tourists. Try walking through Toledo, Spain, it is on a hill and almost everything is inclined, ir is realy exhausting to walk around it. I didn't have the money to rent one but I saw a lot of small groups riding Segways and I'm sure they got to see more than I did. There are several other places in Madrid, Segovia, etc. where Segways are seen as much as bicycles.

One thing though, these Toyota Winglets seem to have smaller tires/wheels, they need biger ones for places with bricked roads and the ocational pothole.

@theLisaSolution: right as far as you go... but remember that the Japanese dealt themselves in for some hurt by a little excursion they made with a carrier air group at Pearl Harbor. I admire their sense of enterprise, too, but we nuked them as an alternative to an amphibious invasion of their Home Islands that would have killed five million men on either side, maybe a few million more civilians.

But that said, no, the idea's out there. As long as they didn't copy the Segway outright (and I give Toyota credit for more intelligence than that) they have the perfect right to figure a better way to do what Dean Kamen did with the Segway as long as they didn't infringe his patents.

you tell that old fat ass bizzt that I dont remember nothin bout her either. Did she ast about me? Ast if she ast about me!

Nice wheels

How can canvas this in art. It is a great piece but the print is not the good one.