GM partners with Segway Inc.
The United State’s biggest automaker and the creator of Segway scooters have teamed up to create the GM PUMA , a two-wheeled electric vehicle. So far the Puma is only in the prototype stage.
Perhaps this “sit-down scooter” or GM Segway, as some people are calling it, could be the next big thing in automotive technology. However, most market watchers are predicting the PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) will be just was big a flop as the Segway scooter.
About the PUMA
The prototype was unveiled today in Manhattan. The vehicle weighs 300 pounds, runs solely on electricity and basically looks like a sit-down, shielded Segway. It has no safety features, but the makers say such features are unnecessary because the vehicle automatically avoids obstacles, pedestrians and other cars.
The PUMA’s top speed is 35 mph, and its top distance on a single charge is 35 miles.
PUMA price
It’s tough to say whether you’ll need a personal loan to buy a PUMA, if it ever does come out.
“The companies did not release a projected cost for the vehicle, but said ideally its total operating cost — including purchase price, insurance, maintenance and fuel — would total between one-fourth and one-third of that of the average traditional vehicle,” according to the Huffington Post.
So I guess the projected price depends on your opinion of what an “average traditional vehicle” is.
Predictions of a non-expert
In my unprofessional opinion, any time or money that GM has spent on this vehicle during its time of economic crisis is a huge waste. I applaud the automaker for developing a vehicle that doesn’t use fuel, takes up less space and costs less than its other products, but the GM PUMA will never catch on.
The predictions say the PUMA will cost a fourth to a third the cost of an average vehicle. Well, so do used cars. Only used cars have doors and airbags and places for child seats and luggage and they can go on the highway. They can also get you from point A to point B in the city.
PUMA developers say it has built-in safety features that will keep it from ever crashing. The vehicle stops automatically before running into other vehicles, but that isn’t going to stop a Hummer from flattening it and its driver. Unless all vehicles are replaced with these glorified golf carts, they are scarily unsafe.
It has no safety features, rather, it has danger features. This is a vehicle they want you to drive in traffic? Are they nuts? This is worse than the Pinto. If it’s legal to drive on the sidewalk, fair enough. But if they are seriously thinking about putting those things on city streets, GM really is out to get us.
This looks like a two seater wheelchair with an enclosure over it. They ripped off the rascal. And beside, I thought the min speed for a street legal car was 40mph? If this thing only goes 35 you can’t even get it out on public roads. With no safety features you could never get insurance on this thing, and if you did it would be astrinomical!
when “average” vehicles are banned in cities, which is not too far in the future; the development of personal transportation like the Twike, NIMBE and this Puma will be “in”.
way to go GM & Segway!
This exactly is why you should not give tax payer money to idiots. I can’t even begin to imagine the death toll in this so-called vehicle. I want my portion of the bailout money back ! why do you think these people failed in the first place. The government should have let them fail ! Darwin lives!