General Motors and Segway are developing an electric two-seat prototype vehicle with just two wheels, which could allow people to travel around cities more quickly, safely, quietly, and cleanly, and at a lower total cost. The collaboration, dubbed Project P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) combines several technologies that increase mobility freedom with zero emissions, enhanced safety, seamless connectivity and reduced congestion in cities.
(Emile Wamsteker/General Motors)Photos (1 of 1)
Segway teams with GM for pint-sized power wheels
By Chris Gaylord | 04.07.09
General Motors and Segway have joined forces to produce a two-wheel, two-seat, too-small-for-the-highway micro-car.
These new PUMAs (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) are based on the motorized personal transporters that made Segway famous. But rather than standing on the scooter’s two wheels, drivers sit on a well balanced bench encased in lightly protective walls.
GM and Segway hope the battery-powered vehicle will ease urban congestion and cut carbon emissions. During PUMA’s debut in New York City today, the two companies revealed plans to partner with cities and universities to set up special PUMA lanes. Segway failed to carve out exclusive real estate for its scooters years ago, leading to the predicament that they were a little too fast for sidewalks and a little too slow for roads. PUMAs can reach 35 miles per hour.
These new sit-down models will come with new safety features. PUMA fleets could communicate across a wireless network, allowing them to avoid collisions and possibly navigate by themselves.
Even if the vehicles don’t take off in the United States, the small craft might find success in crowded cities in the developing world, Chris Borroni-Bird, director of the project for GM, told USA Today. PUMAs can cruise 35 miles on a single charge, the energy equivalent of 200 miles per gallon of gasoline, he says.
Don’t expect to see PUMAs in the wild until 2012, GM says. That is, if the project survives GM’s current financial troubles.
“With a clock running down to a June 1 deadline that could push the company into bankruptcy protection, GM is using the unveiling to try and demonstrate that it retains prowess in new vehicle development having already seen its much-hyped Volt electric car described as unviable by the U.S. auto task force,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
What do you think, readers? Will this bring Segway and GM the success it has grasped at for years?
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3. BS96 | 04.07.09
As technically a good idea as this is, there is a major cultural hurdle to overcome.
People. Like. Cars.
4. David | 04.07.09
Hahahahahahahha!!! GM needs to put their head on straight. This is what you call “function before design”, and lets forget about the design. It makes you wonder what they are thinking. I bet this has something to do with bail out money. “We just need 100 billion so we can get are big idea going. Then we will be ok.”
LOL!! Every time I look at that photo I can’t stop laughing. I am picturing that guy being rear ended at at stop. Then being thrown hundreds of feet as that thing rolls end over end. I can’t wait to see that on youtube!
5. Diana D | 04.07.09
For those of us who live in urban areas (e.g. New York, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.) this is an amazing invention! Imagine being able to run around the city in bike lanes (safer) getting from one place to another without spending a a gallon of gas just looking for parking! You can practically park these anywhere. Very nice.
7. CStevens | 04.07.09
Will people feel safe driving on a busy city street in one of these? As much as they are like motorcycles I am not so sure. It is worth a try, that’s for sure.
To say that a fully electric car does not produce emissions is a stretch. Until we go totally green in our electricity production, the power that will charge these vehicles will have some, if not a lot, of coal behind it.
Our power plants burn coal. I think a lot of people forget that when they think about electrical power.
8. Russell Palmer | 04.07.09
Well it be safe enough in lanes of its own and may be ideal at universities and inner cities in the rainy season (if it gains some sidewalls). But ZENN will have more universal appeal, and will be well established before PUMA becomes available.
9. Science | 04.07.09
Has anyone looked at the average American, we need large SUV’s they are the only vehicles that can hold a over 6 foot over 200 pound, family of 4 or 5. This is rediculous, Obama needs to knock off this energy efficiency stupidity. Send the Toyota’s back and lets do our own thing. Develop alternative fuels from other plants and continue to improve gas and diesel engines. There is nothing bad about the emissions and we need to all go to a good Chemistry and Physics class and learn how things work. Not have the goverment tell us things that are not even possible.
11. Linda W | 04.08.09
Problem with the Segway-GM combo is its impracticability on roads with standard vehicles. It’s a good idea, but the biggest threat on the road to smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles are the tank-like trucks and cross-overs of yesterday and even today.
In CA, studies in regards to safety were done for the smaller “urban vehicles” — and with each other, they do well, its just in combination with older “legacy” vehicles, that they leave their occupants at a serious safety deficit compared to someone driving around in a Hummer or even a Dodge truck. The frame of the dodge truck was studied for its strength and for its “lethalness” on smaller passenger vehicles. What was good for the truck strength wasn’t good for safety of other-vehicle occupants in a collision.
They could bring down the weight of several urban vehicles to be compatible with each other — things like this GM-Segway, but how to manage their interactions with legacy trucks and vehicles? It’s like trying to build bike-lanes and paths to keep them separate from cars.
The size difference is a problem that will need social adjustments (special roads, special urban areas where only urban vehicles are allowed, etc…). Then you get into class and customer battles with wealthy large vehicle owners not wanting to pay for public roads that only service the smaller cars of the masses, and smaller masses not wanting to pay extra for full-car+urban-car support. Urg. We might need to agree to partial up urban spaces for different, more economical urban vehicles and limit legacy vehicles to specific main roads.
I can see the GM-Seg urban car doing well on many European streets where even a bicycle has trouble managing (due to need to maintain speed for stability), as the GMSeg, uses electronics (mostly) for balance and can stay stationary. Great potential, but will need to architect urban areas for them to thrive in. Then I could save my gas-guzzler for long-distance trips to other urban areas, and maybe rely on a local urban-vehicle for my in-town usage. Would have to provide some way to easily and low-cost rent urban vehicles to get owners to leave them at city-edge. But may be preferable to keeping urban-big-streets available for legacy cars.
12. Linda W | 04.08.09
Thomas Peter claimed: “The cityZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) is planned to be a fully certified, highway capable vehicle with a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 250 miles”…
According to website top speed is 25MPH as permitted by law.
Where do you get your info?
80MPH sounds great, 25MPH doesn’t. 45MPH/70KPH would be acceptable in my urban area given its spread out nature.
13. Linda | 04.08.09
One more comment on the Zenncar…price = $18-22 thousand depending on options — quite a bit more than the $4000 estimated here.
I’d say Zenncar is a fad-car with low perf looking for poser-buyers with Gov-funding. My gas-powered vehicle w/air, full power, at 26MPG cost about the same ass the Zenn-fundamentally-limited special-purpose restricted vehicle.
Very bad marketing, though compared to a 30-44K prius or similar, is a lower price point. 25MPH is a non starter for a 2nd vehicle in my area. Bicycles can and do go faster. These Zenn things are latest upgrade of the retirement-community golf-cart car. Designed (and limited by law to 25MPH) for use in Gated-Retirement type communities appealing to old people who don’t need to go anywhere. Not a car replacement even for generic urban use since I can’t navigate over 25MPH streets anywhere outside my block. Local street connectivity has been purposefully restricted by our ‘progressive’, anti-growth, anti-big-business, Santa Cruz,CA township.
*sigh*
:-/
14. JournalRhythm | 04.08.09
there’s a new concept in the automotive business
it’s 2 seated, 2 wheeled, and too ambitious
General Motors fearing their time is over
is desperate to meet their innovation quota
partnered with Segway trying to make headway
came up with something just a little more deadly
works like the other one except that you sit
and ride around praying that you don’t get hit
To listen to a song about this news article, visit:
15. John Dallman | 04.08.09
Sometimes, you have to go with existing standards. Anyone remember the Sinclair C5? That was an one-man three-wheel electric car that was meant to drive on the road, but was obviously unsafe. It was so low to the ground that conventional car drivers wouldn’t be able to see it. The Segway won’t keep the rain off, and needs special lanes. The Puma still needs special lanes, and nobody is going to set them up on any large scale becauase that would require taking space away from current roads and sidewalks.
What’s needed is a small, cheap electric car that is safe on the roads. It doesn’t have to be as fast or hold as much as a conventional car. An electric version of a Mercedes Smart, or the Tata low-cost car would be about right.
17. Madeye | 04.08.09
Linda W. …. you misread the materials on the cityZENN.
Yes … the currently available model is a low-speed vehicle, restricted by regulation to that low speed as a ‘neighborhood vehicle’.
The cityZENN is an entirely different vehicle … capable of speeds up to 75 MPH with a range of 250 miles. A fully certified, highway capable with operating costs in the order of about 20% of internal combustion vehicles.
It is more efficient to generate electricity to fuel electric vehicles than having each vehicle operating its own power plant.
The American addiction to big SUVs is a regrettable phenomenon that will soon end. It has been one of the primary causes of the collapse of the domestic auto sector, as well as the indirect cause of chronic foreign policy problems.
18. Colby | 04.08.09
Imagine being able to ride your bike in the bike lanes with no cost of energy other than the food we eat.
19. Aaron | 04.08.09
Hahhaha wow, pretty it up a little and you’d have another Sara Palin! I was picturing it hitting a curb and doing a spectacular endo! You know if you took the electric motor out and put in some pedals… Hmmmm..
21. Lawrence, KS Homes | 04.09.09
GM is a worldwide corporation… The PUMA may not be designed for US markets… have any of you been to or seen photos of China or India or even areas of Mexico… a vehicle like this would work very well where there are few cars today, Nuclear power is expanding and the population is becoming more mobile. I think it would be a hard sell for the PUMA in the US, perhaps very progressive cities or communities would adopt policies and infrastructure for vehicles like this in the future but I doubt anyone it proposing this as an alternative to a car. Even the PUMA promotional video shows special lanes segregated from the lanes where cars will drive.
BTW - I’m a Zenn Motors stock holder… it’s a speculative holding on my part in hope that the EEStor ultra-capacitor technology pans out… if so.. that’s a game changer for the way the world works. Zenn should have a backup plan for there CityZenn’s power-source however if the EEStor ends up being vaporware. Which is more likely then expecting the technology to work especially based on EEStor’s lack of performance to meet their own deadlines so far. Anyone following the Steorn Orbo… we might be at the same place with the EEStor at this point.
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1. Thomas Potter | 04.07.09
This is the best GM can do? No wonder they are falling off a cliff. I guess GM never heard of ZENN Mortor Company.
The cityZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) is planned to be a fully certified, highway capable vehicle with a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 250 miles. Powered by EEStor, the city ZENN will be recharged in less than 5 minutes, features operating cost 1/10th of a typical internal combustion engine vehicle and be 100% emission free! The target launch of the city ZENN, powered by EEStore is Fall of 2009. The cityZENN qualifies for the U S Government’s $2,500.00 tax credit or the Quebec Government’s $4,000.00 tax credit. http://www.zenncars.com/
Secretive ultracapacitor firm EEStor, backed by Zenn and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (Al Gore is a partner), is developing a solid-state electrical energy storage unit which it says will be longer lasting, lighter, more powerful, and environmentally friendly than current battery technologies.
“EEStor’s technology is a tenth the weight and volume of lead-acid batteries, and significantly smaller than the most advanced chemical batteries today,” said Clifford.
Zenn said EEStor has publicly committed to commercialization in 2008, and that EEStor’s first production line would be used to supply Zenn.
Zenn holds 3.8 percent of EEStor after investing $2.5 million in the ultracapacitor company in April. Kleiner Perkins invested a reported $3 million in EEStor in 2005.
EEStor granted worldwide exclusive licenses for its storage units to Zenn for use in car conversions as well as for new small and medium-sized low speed and highway capable vehicles, but EEStor has already made at least one deal for other uses of its technology.
In January, Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced that it signed a deal with EEStor to use the company’s ultracapacitors for military and homeland security applications.
http://cleantech.com/news/2644/zenn-gearing-up-for-eestor-powered-car