Explain the structure of this sentence: “Segway will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy."

Dean Kamen, the inventor of Segway, ever said:

Segway will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy.

It seems to me that the structure of this sentence is “Segway will be (something1) to the car what the car was (something2) to the horse and buggy."

So: what stands for something2 and what the car was to the horse and buggy stands for something1.

Am I correct?

Solution 1:

The X is to Y what A is to B form means that the relationship between X and Y is similar to or the same as the relationship between A and B.

So your sentence, “Segway will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy" is saying that the relationship between the Segway and the car will be similar to the relationship between the car and the horse and buggy.

So what is the relationship between the car and the horse and buggy? The car largely replaced the horse and buggy for most purposes, in the process revolutionising various aspects of our lives. The speaker was saying that the Segway will replace the car, perhaps with a similar change to our lifestyles.

The sentence says that the "Segway will be to the car" and not "...is to the car" because it's making a prediction about what effect the Segway will have in the future.

(Of course we now know the speaker was wrong about the Segway, but what they meant and whether they were correct are two different things.)