Shahid Kapoor to Sanjay Dutt to Akshay Kumar, Segway has always been a favourite among the Bolly brigade. But then, the fitter ones moved to hovercrafts!

Once hailed as the future of personal transportation, Segway has reached the end of the line. Segway Inc. is ending production of the Segway PT, the two-wheeled personal transporter that found fame among tourists, members of the US postal service and even the Mumbai police. Invented by US engineer Dean Kamen and launched in 2001, Segway changed hands a couple of times and in 2015 it was bought by Ninebot. Segway Inc. has said that it had sold 140,000 Segway PTs since its inception, and that the vehicles accounted for less than 1.5 per cent of the company’s revenue last year. We look at some moments that kept Segway in the news.

Tumbling President

In 2003, then-US President George W. Bush tumbled off a Segway at his parents’ summer home in Kennebunkport. He managed to land on his feet while his father, George Bush Senior (not in the picture), looked on.

Flooring the world’s fastest

A Segway floored a man many couldn’t — Usain Bolt. At the Athletics World Championships in 2015, a cameraman riding a Segway ran into the sprinter, who was on his victory lap. The two latter shook hands; no harm done.

A character in a film

Kevin James’s character Paul Blart is as much at the heart of Paul Blart: Mall Cop as the machine he drives around the mall — a stand-up Segway transporter. He becomes a hero when his Segway allows him to outrun bad guys take over the mall.

Early critic

Apple chief Steve Jobs had doubts about the machine. He was quoted saying in Steve Kemper’s 2001 book, Code Name Ginger, that the machine was as big as the personal computer. Kemper wrote, paraphrasing Jobs: “If one stupid kid at Stanford hurt himself using a Ginger and then announced online that the machine sucked, the company was sunk.”

Technopolis bigwigs liked it

Even though Steve Jobs was not happy with the product design, Segway was embraced by big names in the tech world, like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have also been seen with the vehicle.

A tragic moment

Jimi Heselden, a former West Yorkshire miner, who had bought the company that makes Segway motorised scooter in 2009, died the following year when he apparently rode one of his two-wheeled machines over a cliff and into a river near his home. Later the company was sold to Ninebot.