slagjumper

Looks like GM sees the writing on the wall and has developed an electric Segway-like two seater that will run in bikelanes! Wouldn't it be funny if all of a sudden the top twenty cities started a big push for seperated paths. If Forester were dead, he'd be turning over in his grave.


https://www.engadget.com/2009/04/07/g...s-stage-debut/
Cities with extensive bike lanes -- look out:
https://weblogs.newsday.com/cars/blog..._twowheel.html

degnaw

Now that's simply ridiculous. Heck, even I tend to leave bike lanes when I top 20mph or so. If its top speed is 15 or 20mph, it'd be more understandable.

slagjumper

I guess it is all about the consumer's perception of safety. Many cyclists will be able to blow the PUMA's away. But given GM's track record for inovation this will probably never take off.

SeattleShaun

This is the same GM that killed the EV-1 and Saturn?

RIP PUMA....

OTOH, the IT Segway changed the transportation world, didn't it?

JRA

GM is gonna build a vehichle for the Segway market? Sheesh! Hasn't the Segway been failure enough?

GM killed the EV-1 and someday they may bring out the Volt.

They're not bankrupt but the government tells them who their CEO can be and the taxpayer is on the hook to pay for waranty repairs.

The world ain't nuts; it's crazy.

cudak888 

Talk about an "accelerated pedestrian."

Pun intended.

-Kurt

slagjumper

It seems clear to us that the PUMA is a bad idea. But wasnt replacing public transportation in LA with an extensive road system a bad idea? What about the countless bridges and roads to nowhere? I bet the road building folks will eat this up as an idea to spend more on bmodal infrastructure, Might sound appealing to bike lane advocating cyclists.

The Human Car

The thing looks like a wheelchair with a roll cage to me, just say'n.

slagjumper

I wonder how it does on hills.

crhilton

I'd better not catch one in a bike lane...

crhilton

They need this so that when you go shopping for an electric car at a chevy dealership the salesman can point to the PUMA and say "that's what electric cars are like, you want this SUV here." It's how GM makes good ideas sound ridiculous. They may do something similar with the volt: "Oh you want a plugin hybrid, we have one but it's $50,000. You want a Cadillac!"

GM did it to electric cars the last time by building a thousand of them and including R&D costs into the purchase price of 1,000 vehicles. In software we know how this game works: Research is risk. If you succeed you win it back ten times over. If you fail then you wasted all of your time. You don't get to charge for it because it's not a per widget cost.

That's just my theory on what they're trying to do. It could also be that they want to claim they hire engineers and researchers to build electric cars. Then they encourage them to build something unmarketable so that they won't risk actually building a successful electric car. Electric cars ruin GM's policy of selling you the bigger engine at a ridiculous markup. They limit the silly electric gadgets that everyone sells at a crazy high markup.

genec

Based on what Toyota has come up with... I tend to agree... what in the world is GM thinking! Obviously GM and the Oil companies have some sort of behind the scenes connection.

As far as innovation... GM left it all behind somewhere... sheesh. The CEO didn't step down soon enough.

sjauch

That piece of crap doesn't belong in the bike lane.

Roughstuff

Since the auto industry in the US went from being run by Auto executives (up until the 1960s) to Ralph Nader luddites and their congressional ilk, its all been downhill for the auto industry and GM. I don't blame management OR the unions.

This garbage can on wheels is only the beginning of the turd vehicles we will see out of detroit.

roughstuff

SPlKE 

I'd carry a spare frame pump just to Cinzano one of those abominations.

chipcom 

Another good reason to avoid bike lanes....or can we start calling them PUMA lanes?

JRA

I often see people in wheelchairs driving vehicularly. They don't need no stinkin' bike lanes.

Ironically, I also see people on bicycles riding on the sidewalk-- on the same street at the same time (what a hoot!).

I can't for the life of me figure out why a vehicle that can go 35mph would need a special lane. Isn't 35 mph pretty much the speed limit on many roads?

wheel

yawn...

SPlKE 

Because if it collides with anything larger than a bicycle, all occupants of the electric rickshaw will be killed?

noisebeam

While this is very unlikely for a wide range of reasons, it would be welcome as it could increase the visibility of the problems with bike lanes to a wider audience.

slagjumper

While I'm not betting any of my money that it will succeed, it seems like it has some of the features that are bound to be found in future vehicles. Things like smaller foot print, cheaper to buy and run, less polluting, less stylish, and more utilitarian.

The speed limit on city of Pittsburgh public streets is never more than 35.

Spike, I think that you name for that bubble on wheels, might stick and kill the concept alltogether, at least in the Western half of the globe.

"electric rickshaw"

Would a city of PUMAs be the same as "car free"?

Roody

The PUMA can't crash into anything.

SPlKE 

True that. However, It's an unfortunate fact that all other vehicles can crash into pumas.

Pscyclepath

Unless PUMAs have pedals for the major part of their propulsive power, they may well be screwed. Many communities prohibit motor vehicles from operating in bike lanes, and nearly all prohibit them on bike paths and multi-use paths. Pretty much the same problems that mo-peds and E-bikes have in many places...

chipcom 

IF the network that does not yet exist is created...till then it can crash just like anything else.
Geesh...now the bike lanes are gonna go wireless too!
We can surf the web as we ride!