PUMA Prowling New York
Okay, I confess, for as much as I lust over a Smart car, I also nurse an ill-concealed desire for a Segway. When I actually saw one on the streets of Fort Worth, I almost drove off the road rubber necking. Now, General Motors has announced a partnership with Segway to produce a two-passenger, two-wheeled urban vehicle they’re calling the PUMA for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility.
Automotive News kinda called it a phone booth on wheels while likening it to a baby stroller. I think it looks more like the bastard love child of a golf cart and a wheelchair. The point is that it’s all electric, will run 35 miles on a charge, and has a top speed of 35 mph, while costing a quarter to a third the price of a conventional vehicle. Not to mention that parking something that small would be just a dream.
(Click here for story with photos.)
They’re testing it out in New York City right now with a complete prototype promised sometime in 2010. Of course working models are going to hit Europe first where public imagination and traffic laws are more receptive to alternative form factors in personal transportation. (Well, that and the fact that the combination of congestion and centuries old narrow streets is pretty common place in Europe.)
Right now, the PUMA looks to be an open cab vehicle with a transparent roof. I predict for the “authorities” to be happy, they’re going to have to enclose the cab a bit more. Of course, if that raises the need for some kind of AC, the price will go up. I really, really like the idea of urban transport, but the only way it will ever fly is for the units to be affordable enough to buy as a second “car.” Bottom line, however? I would LOVE to take this baby for a test drive.