Tech
Segway’s speaker makes your electric scooter sound like a gas-guzzling supercar
The external speaker can be strapped to your electric scooter and plays four different types of engine sounds.
Just listen to that scooter engine purr. Segway released a strappable speaker that can simulate engine noises for its e-scooters and e-bikes. They’re describing it as an “engine sound simulation system,” but really it’s just an external speaker that can sync to your electric scooter for silly engine sounds.
I don’t think people are looking to fool anyone into believing that their electric scooter has a motor in it. This absurdity is only highlighted by the fact that Segway decided that one of the four available modes should be a V12 engine.
Sure, Segway’s latest scooter, the SuperScooter GT2, can hit 43.5 mph, but it does so while staying pretty silent like most other EVs out there. Segway isn’t the first to try and add fake engine noises, as some companies have been doing this for electric cars. But, let’s not forget that Segway’s solution is for a scooter.
Vroom, vroom — As silly as Segway’s engine speaker is, at least it looks like they put some thought into the design. When strapped into your scooter or bike, the speaker can simulate engine noises as you accelerate or brake. Segway is giving you four engine sound choices currently, between a single-cylinder, twin-cylinder, V8 and the ridiculous V12. They did note that they may adjust the type of engine sound effects in the future, so you might as well enjoy loud revving while you can.
You can also use the engine speaker as a regular Bluetooth speaker to play music. Whether it’s for fake engine noise or actual music, the speaker was built with four-speakers capable of multi-directional sound. Hopefully, this makes for a safer ride since everyone around can hear you, but it’ll also probably attract some confused looks.
The engine speaker is compatible with a bunch of Segway’s vehicles, including its many kick scooters and mopeds, and even its go karts and dirt bikes. The speaker can run for 23 hours and can fully charge through its USB-C port in about 2.5 hours.
They see me rollin’ — Don’t think this luxury of engine noise comes cheap. Segway’s engine speaker costs $150, which really just adds to how silly this whole thing is. You can just as easily just duct tape a nice external speaker to your scooter for a lot less. This Segway accessory may be excessive, but it would be hilarious to see an electric scooter blare out some V12 engine noises as it cruises along at a breezy 10 mph.
