GM Goes USV | No SUV

FutureTracker| GM head of strategic planning and R&D Larry burns agrees that transforming a Hummer mindset into USV’s required more than riding around in a Smart Car, on the road for many years in Europe. He seemd not at al ruffled when the NYT suggested that last year’s New York auto show Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility prototype looked like an “enclosed wheelchair for two.”

It’s a new day says Burns. By 2030 more than 60 percent of the world’s population will reside in urban environments without train systems that can move them around.

“EN-V reinvents the automobile by creating a new vehicle DNA through the convergence of electrification and connectivity,” said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the G.M. China Group. “It provides an ideal solution for urban mobility that enables future driving to be free from petroleum and emissions, free from congestion and accidents, and more fun and fashionable than ever before.”

There’s only one problem with this idea, the way I see it. At least in New York — where we tend to make up our own rules — and Texas, too, people will just park their cars on the sidewalk. Other than that, this vision of future transportation is very sensible and makes me think of ET.

When I first saw a Smart Car in Germany, I couldn’t help smiling. I so wanted to take the little guy home. Anne