GM motors and Segway create PUMA - Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility

GM motors and Segway have teamed up to create a two-seat, battery-powered urban vehicle that can reach speeds of 56 kilometers per hour.
PUMA - the project was so named by auto giants - literally stands for “Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility”.

The project started 18 months ago, and the final product is not expected on the market in the near future, but still offers an interesting alternative to bicycle and road transport.

Already known facts:
1. PUMA, like the Segway, is a two wheeled vehicle, balanced with gyros.
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2. The power source for the Puma will be rechargeable batteries, and it will be able to reach speeds of 56 kilometers per hour, about three times more than the Segway.

3 Accordingly, this means that in most US states where the minimum speed limit on the highway is 55 miles per hour you will not ride this thing.

4. Three-hour charging of PUMA will cost the owner 35 cents. The battery will allow you to drive all the same 55 kilometers without recharging.

5. GM and Segway hope that PUMA will hit the market by 2012. Although the pricing policy has not yet been determined, it has been established that the cost of a PUMA will be approximately equal to one third to a quarter of the price of a traditional middle-class car.

7. PUMA weighs 272 kilograms.

8. Among other things, each PUMA instance will use the OnStar integrated navigator to communicate with other vehicles, avoid traffic jams and prevent collisions. GM says it will be another approach to a “fully autonomous drive and parking system”.

9. The concept of PUMA shows that GM is starting to think in the direction of decreasing sizes. “We were a company that makes good SUVs (SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE is a sports transport vehicle), and we recognize this,” said Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research, development and strategic planning, in an interview with the New York Times. “Now we want to become a company known for its production of USV cars (Ultra Smart Vehicles – Ultra Smart Cars)”.

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