GM Segways to New Vehicles

For all of you who thought Smarts were a bridge too far in how small vehicles could be, you are going to go positively Britney over the partnership between General Motors and Segway. This puts two wheels way into the crazy zone.


Genius entrepreneur Dean Kamen and his engineers at DEKA spent nine years and $100 million to develop the iBOT, a self-balancing wheelchair that could go up and down stairs, elevate its occupant, and balance on two wheels. Johnson & Johnson paid most of the bills and marketed the wonder, but Kamen was typically smart. He negotiated to keep technology rights to the wheelchair’s gyroscopic self-balancing technology for non-medical purposes. Johnson & Johnson couldn’t have cared less, but obviously didn’t have Kamen’s vision.

That technology would revolutionize sidewalk transportation after its 2001 debut in the Segway scooter that found favor with the U.S. Postal Service, law enforcement agencies, park rangers, mall patrols, recreationalists, and even President George Bush, who famously tumbled off of one in Kennebunkport. It gives the impression of a child’s transport, but amazes with how intuitively it moves forward, aft, and sideways with just a slight shift of body weight. It hasn’t quite revolutionized inner-city transportation as intended, but has proven its technology as amazing.

Perhaps it will take an automaker to really put Segway’s technology to the test. Announced at the recent New York Auto Show, GM and Segway are taking a special two-seat electric commuter to the streets. They call it Project P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility).

Said Larry Burns, GM vice president of research and development, and strategic planning, “Project P.U.M.A. represents a unique solution to moving about and interacting in cities, where more than half of the world’s people live. Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them. Now, connect those vehicles in an Internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks.”

Jim Norrod, current CEO of Segway Inc., continued, “We are excited to be working together to demonstrate a dramatically different approach to urban mobility. There’s an emotional connection you get when using Segway products. The Project P.U.M.A. prototype vehicle embodies this through the combination of advanced technologies that Segway and GM bring to the table to complete the connection between the rider, environment, and others.”

Burns showed a two-seat prototype that runs on a lithium-ion battery and utilizes “digital smart energy management” (whatever that means), two-wheel balancing, back-up training wheels, and dual electric wheel motors. P.U.M.A. can cruise at speeds up to 35 mph and go 35 miles between charges. Think of it as a cool neighborhood vehicle or electric car for short errands. Much was made of the vehicle’s ability to enhance person-to-person communications and connect neighborhoods, but the prototype demonstrates the technology with a passenger compartment more akin to a dune buggy.

If designers get their way, and the vehicle actually makes it to production, passengers will be treated to a 22nd Century club car. Computer sketches illustrate a helmet-shaped vehicle with solid wheels and glass that surrounds passengers, who enter through the front after the windscreen is moved forward. It reminds me of a science fiction version of the Chinese rickshaw.

Everything about the P.U.M.A. and its vision can be realized. The technology exists and is proven. It remains to be seen if people want to ride around in a space age, self-leveling, lithium-ion-powered balancing act.

By Casey Williams
MyCarData