Tony-
I'm sure you've picked all this up by now, but just in case here's the basic specs (of course this varies by model, and all the models aren't yet announced)...
weight - 250 lbs.
speed - 3x walking (whatever that is)
range - 17 miles optimal, 11 miles realistically
yes, it can climb hills, though I'm not sure how steep, and that will probably depend on the model/weight capacity.
Personally, I think the thing is pretty cool. I don't think it'll take off for consumers in the US for a while, however, because we're way too car obsessed (at least I know I am). Also, any place were it's cold/snowing a good deal of the year (like Canada
) is obviously going to have less use for it. Plus, $3000 is a good deal of money, but I bet it will drop significantly in the first 5 years, in part due to demand by certain sectors of corporate america and the government.
I do think this will be very big very fast in countries with very densly packed cities (ie many parts of Asia) where people already tend to ride bikes or drive much smaller cars. Also, at least in the States, almost all new construction is designed to be wheel chair accessible, so getting around in this thing shouldn't be too big of a deal.
I'm mostly impressed with how polished a product it is. I think that is what makes it special. If you had to press forward and backward buttons instead of just shifting your weight, fine control would be much, much harder. That's fairly important, because a large part of its consumer success will depend on whether or not federal/state/city governments make it ok to ride these babies on sidewalks, since they're obviously not meant for the streets.
At any rate, I want one (though not at $3000).
-Adam