Apr 22, 2009

Making City Dwellers More Mobile

One of the hits of the New York International Auto Show was a vehicle you might not even describe as an automobile. The new concept vehicle introduced by General Motors in conjunction with Segway is dubbed PUMA, which stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, and the two-wheeled, two-seat transportation device has immediately captured the public’s attention, threatening to out-cool the Smart and Mitsubishi’s I-MEEV as urban-oriented people movers. Fact is, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, and dense population speaks against the traditional car, which is frankly too big for many city dwellers.

In light of this, General Motors has focused some of its research and development on smaller vehicles, and Segway has been researching a move up from its line of one-person stand-up transporters. After working on parallel paths, the companies decided a marriage of sorts might be valuable. And the PUMA vehicle is also a marriage of many existing technologies, including battery-electric drive, dynamic stabilization that allows two-wheel balancing and drive-by-wire acceleration, and steering and braking.

With all these in place, the PUMA is remarkably intuitive to drive, but with the promised vehicle-to-vehicle communications, you might not even have to drive it. When the concept moves beyond its present experimental state, it could actually drive and park itself. No more cruising around searching for a parking space either. The PUMA will know where the parking spaces are and take you there.

Though the current “proof-of-concept” prototype shown in New York is a bit narrow for two adults to ride in comfort, the production vehicle is expected to be wider and also offer enough cargo space to allow a quick trip to the grocery store. It will travel at speeds up to 35 miles per hour, offer 35 miles on a battery charge, and it will be so maneuverable that it actually turns in its own length. For those who live in cities where weather is an issue, an enclosed body is also in the cards, but GM officials told us all of this will be done with a keen eye on keeping the vehicle very small and very efficient.  One day soon, you might even be able to take your car up in the elevator with you. Next Driving Today News>>