One of the reasons most urban nomads like me are working from home or away from the city is because congestion and polution in big urban places has become almost intolerable…
But that will soon turn into what only used to be a bad dream (and the last remaining traces of our Neanderthal roots)…
Segway Inc. and General Motors Corp. announced Tuesday that they are working together to develop a two-wheeled, two-seat electric vehicle designed to be a fast, efficient, inexpensive and clean alternative to traditional cars and trucks in an urban environment.
GM and Segway are promising 35 miles to a charge, with a charge time of 35 minutes and a top speed of 35 mph–or as they’ve dubbed them, the “three thirty-fives”. That is well enough for most of us on our daily commute between home and our office.
The point of the project isn’t just to get clean and efficient vehicles on the streets but to create what GM is calling a “mobility Internet” on which each vehicle is a node. Each node should be able to talk to other nodes using GPS, to avoid accidents and speed up traffic throughput, while the brains of the unit–the dashboard–will be a simple docking station for smartphones, several of which will be compatible with the P.U.M.A. transporter.
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Sources: FastCompany.com, Segway.com
Links: Youtube video of P.U.M.A. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY4msj5Q05Q&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fastcompany.com%2Fblog%2Fchris-dannen%2Ftechwatch%2Fgmsegway-puma-part-2-live-demo-photos&feature=player_embedded)
Segway P.U.M.A. website: http://www.segway.com/puma/
GM-Segway P.U.M.A. Live Demo (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/gmsegway-puma-part-2-live-demo-photos)
GM and Segway Collaborate on Networked “P.U.M.A.” Two-Seater (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/gm-segway-collaborate-networked-puma-two-seater)
Fuel use of various modes of transportation (special thanks to Kerolic): http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/trans0209gettingaroundrev.html
Another alternative to buying the P.U.M.A.: Don’t kill your car (http://www.good.is/post/dont-kill-your-car/)
we:offset, the world’s first CO2 emission offsetting tool for mobile phones by Nokia: http://www.nokia.com/A41039027
I really find exciting that new company tries to find new and innovative solutions to solve such a big issue. But I tend to really think that the biggest solutions are also the most obvious. Public transportation development, renting solution are probably elements to strenghen …
Not mentioning the bike – the most efficient mean of transportation ever invented, with the best ratio energy/km
Look at the poster to get a better picture of energy equivalents.
http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/trans0209gettingaroundrev.html
@ Kerolic: Thanks for your input and the link! Just like you I believe that for the moment we can only decently rely on public transportation or environment-friendly solutions (a.k.a. walking or ridding a bike!) to help things change. However, our (lazy) human nature urges us to drive our cars to go to the grocery next door, while waiting for the big change to come from others (our government, influential people, etc).
The fact that GM is part of that PUMA project really gives me hope as we all know that car manufacturers are the one usually driving the WW oil consumption… if GM can manage to make good money out of that initiative (I really hope they will), maybe more manufacturers will follow its lead! And this is how things may start to change (remember The Story of Stuff: CEOs and Shareholders “make regulations”, not governments)
TO DRIVE ON THE STREET DOSE IT NEED TO BE LICENSED
@ Todd: since countries have different regulations with regards to the use of vehicles on the roads, I guess it may take time to see the P.U.M.A going wild in streets around the world. However, since Segways (the little brother of the P.U.M.A.) and electric scooters speeding >35 MPH are already authorized in most cities in Europe and the US, why shouldn’t the P.U.M.A.? But security might be another issue for the P.U.M.A. (at least at the beginning); so we’ll maybe see P.U.M.A. users riding their vehicle on the bicycle lane at first…