General Motors is under a lot of pressure to come up with green transportation solutions, and they’ve apparently decided that the way of the future is the Segway. Well, sort of. GM and Segway debuted a prototype of a 2-wheeled, 2-seat electric vehicle that’s like a sitting version of the traditional Segway design. It’s called the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) project, and it’s part of a larger plan that could revolutionize urban transportation.
From The Huffington Post:
The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, or PUMA, project also would involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with each other, regulate the flow of traffic and prevent crashes from happening.
The 300-pound prototype runs on a lithium-ion battery and uses Segway’s characteristic two-wheel balancing technology, along with dual electric motors. It’s designed to reach speeds of up to 35 miles-per-hour and can run 35 miles on a single charge.
Ideally, the vehicles would also be part of a communications network that through the use of transponder and GPS technology would allow them to drive themselves. The vehicles would automatically avoid obstacles such as pedestrians and other cars and therefore never crash, Burns said.
A projected cost hasn’t been released, but the companies said it would likely be between one-fourth and one-third the cost of the average traditional vehicle. There’s no time line for production and GM concedes that it would take a while to get that kind of communications infrastructure in place, but it hopes that they can start out in places like college campuses.
Hopefully they’ll make a few changes to the design – there needs to be at least a little room for groceries or luggage, and it should be enclosed or offer that option. This kind of vehicle would dramatically change how traffic works in urban environments – can you imagine how much cleaner and more efficient it would be? And it would probably appeal to people who aren’t normally into riding bicycles for safety and comfort reasons.
It’s a good start, but perhaps GM should also work on technology that could apply to the entire nation, not just urban areas – and create vehicles that A) have a hope of selling within the near future and B) aren’t as expensive as the Chevy Volt.
Link [The Huffington Post]
