I wanted to bring to readers’ attention a new vehicle that might revolutionize travel in cities. The PUMA! You’ve probably already heard about this by now. The concept seems on the surface to be a rather brilliant attempt at tackling the smog and congestion problems posed by motor vehicles.

General Motors (GM), known for making such gas guzzlers as the Humvee (Hummer and H2), has teamed up with two-wheeled personal transporters, Segway, to produce the PUMA, a vehicle focused on, “Personal Urban Mobility and Accessiblity.

It’s great to see GM move away from over-sized vehicles.  Also, SegWay, whose product has, to me, seemed to have held such promise for a long time but not the results to match, to have maybe found a way forward into massive implementation of their technology.

Check out this video:

How far?  How fast?

Both companies have said that the vehicle could travel up to 35 miles on one charge and up to 35 miles per hour! It looks a lot more comfortable than a scooter and can have an enclosure to ensure that the driver (and one passenger) stay dry.

Concerns

Of course, concerns abound about how it would handle in bad weather (like rain and snow) as well as safety concerns have been brought up. Howeve,r there is a counter point to the safety concerns.  Although the PUMA lacks a lot of the safety equipment found in traditional vehicles, like airbags, there has been discussion of a communications network allowing the vehicles to communicate with one another to avoid crashes.

Less Pollution!

The PUMA uses a lithium-ion battery and because its emissions would not be spewed in the streets and congestion could likely be greatly relieved because of the relative smaller size and agility of the vehicles, less smog would be produced.  The small amount of material used in the PUMA (roughly 300 pounds) also means a lot less energy used to propel it.

This seems like yet another idea that could help us begin using electricity only for travel purposes. Hopefully, that would mean a greater demand would be placed on having renewable electricity sources (like solar and wind) in places where such vehicles are operating in order to truly reduce overall emissions from travel. Having zero-emissions vehicle both at the point of travel and from the electricity source would be a huge selling point!

Accessibility and Parking

I can only imagine how a model made specifically for disabled users could improve their ability to get around in a city. Think also how much less pollution would be spewed by cars circling blocks while the drivers look for parking — the PUMA is small!

The cost?

No exact figures have been given yet, but some have said it would hopefully come in at one quarter to one third of the cost of owning and operating a traditional vehicle.

Realistic?

Who knows how realistic or timely this will end up being.  The companies are looking for a test city or campus to see how it would work with several of the vehicles communicating and avoiding accidents as suggested.  Only time will tell, but it’s great to see one of our car companies actually come up with a new concept.

It looks like from both a cost and environmental standpoint, it’s a win-win.  Now, I would say that the companies have to have some good demonstration spots to show that this is viable.  I wish them luck!

What do you think of the PUMA?

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