yes, the segway's innovation was essentially a consequence of moore's law: consumer-oriented computers and sensors were small enough, fast enough, robust enough, and power-efficient enough to calculate dynamic stability for locomotion in real-time (my field of study in grad school).

it was awe-inspiring and admirable from an engineering standpoint, but painfully misapplied and dorky from a societal one.

kamen could have used this technological advance on any number of (existing) personal transport machines, but he chose to invent his own, as inventors are wont to do.

All the kids these days seem to want a hoverboard. So the Segway is still a success IMO. Albeit limited to toy usage (for now), but a lot of inventions start out as a toy.