Tech Failures That Were Ahead Of Their Time
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Being first doesn’t always guarantee success. Often the public isn’t ready, or the product isn’t ready, or there’s not an infrastructure in place, whatever the reason, many times the first to market are just the first to fail. Today we celebrate those successful failures.
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LINKS LINKS LINKS
https://youtu.be/Tppv2NgZOQU?si=JJbttKzMB51fGaGW
https://invention.si.edu/invention-stories/whats-edison-got-do-tattoos
https://time.com/archive/6905012/reinventing-the-wheel-3/
https://www.fastcompany.com/90517971/exclusive-segway-the-most-hyped-invention-since-the-macintosh-to-end-production
https://www.segway.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob_6XAhj_1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GII7QZy2GHM
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/sep/14/news.technology
https://www.motortrend.com/features/inevitable-vodcast-episode-8-ed-begley-jr
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRkoM5EYz111nLeXWNOcMWATuyVp6eXEAFgWQ&s
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20141209-sinclair-c5-30-years-too-soon
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/SinclairC5-side.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Sinclair
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Sinclair.600pix.crop.jpg
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/sinclair-c5-the-tiny-ev-that-dreamed-big-and-failed-spectacularly-169963.html
https://www.moveelectric.com/e-scooters/four-times-sir-clive-sinclair-tried-revolutionise-e-transport
http://bbc.com/videos/cl77qzrv8nyo
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lime-S_Scooters.jpg
https://www.wardsauto.com/news/archive-wards-gm-ev1-set-stage-for-tesla-modern-evs/793321/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsdUfAEIEos
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-death-of-the-ev-1-118595941/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZHka8KUj74
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/ev1-may-have-been-first-demise-launched-tesla/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0gSR9HXf_w
https://www.techspot.com/article/1085-nintendo-virtual-boy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc8qckEoKxk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.roadtovr.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE
https://www.roadtovr.com/nintendo-virtual-boy-switch-2-accessory-cardboard/
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/betamax-vs-vhs-why-betamax-could-not-compete-178275
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwEE3rYTiyk
https://thepopculturestudio.com/2022/01/29/20-years-ago-the-dreamcast-failed-but-it-could-and-should-have-succeeded/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHDE25-GInI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7IPzKb6p8Q
https://www.timeextension.com/features/flashback-uncovering-the-tragic-tale-of-the-philips-cd-i
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-history-of-the-philips-cdi-failed-playstation-ancestor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN8-Pdz-ns8
https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-webtvs-remote-controlled-internet-failed-to-take-off/
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-how-the-first-macintosh-failed-and-still-changed-computing-20140123-story.html
https://www.bentley.edu/news/case-google-glass-finding-success-through-failure
https://biztechmagazine.com/article/2017/02/att-picturephone-helped-usher-video-conference-era
https://www.wired.com/2012/04/april-20-1964-picturephone-dials-up-first-transcontinental-video-call/
https://museumoffailure.com/exhibition/cuecat
https://createdigital.org.au/humble-tinkerer-accidentally-invented-pacemaker/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/accidental-invention-play-doh-180973527/
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/harry-coover
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/percy-spencer-melts-chocolate-bar-invents-microwave-oven/#google_vignette
https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/01/microwaves/
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
3:40 – Transportation
9:00 – Entertainment
16:03 – Communication
20:57 – Sponsor – 80,000 Hours
@papichulo9684
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Segue is the gay way to spell Segway.
@lobosfelipe1
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Fun fact, here in Brazil we had a car company (Gurgel) that created its own electric car in mid 70s. In 1981gurgel had some more electric models produced.
@JALaflinOfficial
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
My favorite failed invention is the Tiddy Bear.
@pyrosinugami
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I don't know if the Segway is a good example of technology ahead of time the gyroscopes and self balancing was neat but really scooters already existed all that needed to change was the batteries and efficient motors so I don't know if that's exactly a good example of tech being "before it's time"
@acid3129
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I have a C5 it's still legal on UK roads and it's just become tax and MOT exempt I use it to go to the local shop
@Digital-Dan
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Toyota RAV4-EV was a contemporary of the EV-1. A couple hundred still on the road. Very nice small SUV.
@iondrive3d
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Personally I thought the Virtual Boy was awesome. I loved it and still have it.
@cask1
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I loved dreamcast
@SebberNoTo
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
"Better place" in Denmark was imo far ahead of its time.
Electric car battery changing stations. In 2008… Went bust in 2013.. 10 years later, Electric cars has overshaddowed new car sales in Denmark.
@daviddpg
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Man did I love my Dreamcast.
@juanelorriaga2840
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I remember getting the Dreamcast at the midnight release in NYC and I still say it was an amazing console.The Phantasy Star Online blew me away.
@matthewnicholas6365
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Not an invention, but the movie "Idiocracy" was decades ahead of its time.
@lanab644
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I loved Microsoft Bob. It was so cool and fun to use. Great for an ADHD kid like me.
@sjhall2009
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
19:18 I had one of these when I was a kid. I got it for free, I don't remember from where. Never found anything to use it on. Eventually it got lost (probably thrown away).
@Grundewalt
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
at the beginning i don'"t see much in common between segway and scooters. Hoveboards yes, same tech, but scooters? a motor and a battery defines a segway?
@ChrisCoxCycling
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
They still run segway tours here in Brisbane. They're so lame
@michaelnordstrom6797
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
2:08 still a scourge to society. Mr. Mackey is right I don’t want the future to be scootin’!
@Clark8280
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Google Glasses was the biggest thing for like two weeks then it disappeared completely. Still wish they continued developing it to get the bulkiness down.
@shrimpbisque
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
The Philips CD-I is basically what would happen if DVD menu games had their own console.
@FuzzyElf
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Aa I sit watching this video, I am wearing (drum roll?) my CueCat T-shirt! Well done of my two CueCat shirts. I got one because CueCat had partnered with CompUSA, and I was working at a CompUSA call center.
Yeah, remember CompUSA? They had a call center business.
Anyway, we were also given actual CueCats. How exciting! Not very. Somewhere, I do still have one of the two I got, still in the envelope it was distributed in.
The best part was the free shirt, and I ended up with two of them. Sadly, after only about 25 years, wear is showing on them.
@Palarisha77
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I'm a child of the 80s and I had no idea VHS stood for Video Home System… Just one of those things you never even thought about!
@bookaufman9643
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
They were all kinds of actual electric cars back in the 80s. I guess that movie came out that explained how the oil companies in the car companies got together and killed the electric car. Then they came back. I drive a 2013 Nissan Leaf that gets me 60 mi on one charge a week. Paid 3 Grand for it and you can find a used one in beautiful shape for about that price with the first battery pack. I couldn't think of a better car for getting around town.
@kevinquist
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
i had that webtv for a while. took for ever.
@tony.h321
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Remember my dad buying a Beta Max machine right on the cusp of when it became obsolete. Seemed to happen almost overnight. Suddenly nothing was available for it at video stores. He kept it though. And a handful of movies. Later on it became a nostalgia thing to hook it up to the TV and rewatch them.
@coraleelazebnikova
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I had a CD-I as a kid, a few actually because they did break, their controllers broke quite often as well. The most reliable controllers were the kids giant tracker ball and the hand held gun. I never had the Zelda game. I played the Mad Dog McCree series a bunch as well as a game based on the TV Show starring Hulk Hogan called “Thunder in Paradise. There was a good Bernstein Bears game for it as well for kids.
@alexhopfauf8882
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
The 1988 and 1989 Buick reatta and riviera touch screen infotainment system
@MyElectricAdv
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Pretty sure Elon never bought out Tesla. He never got close to 51%
@Megadextrious
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
1:50 dude, I stepped on one of those ONCE. I fell so hard I ended up in the ER with motherf*ckin whiplash. 😤I’m glad I don’t see them around anymore lol
@Darin.Pearson
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Seems like you might have decent content. For some reason, your fading voice style of delivering punchlines is intolerable to me. You just keep doing it over and over and over. I can't listen to that. It's like a tic.
@theblackmanfromhell
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Google stadia
@aggonzalezdc
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Virtual boy is hated on way too much, almost always from people who have never touched one. The games were limited but the hardware was cool, with some amazing tech inside for the time.
@dwmaddawgs
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Thermonuclear weapons bombed horribly shortly after they took off 😂🤣🤦🏾♂️
@dwmaddawgs
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
The power glove was the biggest failure from my childhood I can remember 😂
@dwmaddawgs
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Electric cars were the first real cars to hit the public market and internal combustion cars were the weird ones.
@PrinsessePeach
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
4:52
First Crude Prototype (1832–1839): Scottish inventor Robert Anderson is generally credited with building the first carriage powered by non-rechargeable electric cells.
First Production Electric Car (1888): The Flocken Elektrowagen, built by Andreas Flocken in Germany, is widely regarded as the first four-wheeled electric car resembling a modern automobile.
First Successful American EV (1890): Chemist William Morrison debuted a six-passenger electric wagon in Des Moines, Iowa, which sparked significant interest in the U.S.
@Cocoanutty0
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I distinctly remember segways were like a billion dollars. Ok, well, they were just way too expensive for the average person. Not good for commuters who would prefer bikes or at that price, cars. Not good for kids or fun because again, the price. I wanted to try one and simply couldn’t afford it.
@weedreptilianoffcial
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Ive never heard of vb from Nintendo thats crazy
@weedreptilianoffcial
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
He died from his own product and it didnt help with sales
@sortaspicy9278
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
If anybody did first robotics in high school, they know exactly who Dean Cayman is. I got the chance to meet him at Worlds. He's a uh interesting person to say the least
@LauraMoncur
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I was at Comdex when they debuted CueCat. You are correct. They were giving the scanners away. The hacker community instantly started using them for hand scanners and other ideas. It was a good time.
@memorimusic420
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
3:40 technically electric cars were there before ICE cars. They were quite good for the time (mid 1800s)
@braselthegamer
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
WE HAD A CUECAT! I don't remember why. I think my mom got it.
@mpix2000
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
8:40 I love this one!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@ZobtheWise
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
Stupid lying Jetsons… brilliant!
@iangcoville
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
PLATO IV mid 70s.
@violeta6846
April 9, 2026 at 10:46 pm
I just realized people like the element of danger in things like this
Comments are closed.