Citizen Power

Today I read that GM is looking seriously into bankruptcy.  Meanwhile, this little Segway vehicle might be what this former car giant has been reduced to.  GM might be mass-producing these soon.  It’s called the PUMA, for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility.  Not a bad idea, but shouldn’t GM invest in something a little more serious to save itself?

This little vehicle (a prototype) will eventually use “vehicle-to-vehicle technology”, whatever that means, and supposedly be able to navigate it’s own way through tough traffic situations on regular city streets.  I don’t think this is terribly likely. It will just take one of these little things squished between a city bus and a semi truck and that will be the end of that.  They should have their own little bike path-like roads,  and in fact I can see cities accommodating tiny vehicles like that in the future.

Last week President Obama gave GM more or less an ultimatum:  shape up and make a viable plan for the future,  or no more public money loans.   That means they can and probably will go into bankruptcy and this is what should have happened a long time ago.  GM was a great car company at one point, before anyone knew what CO2 or Peak Oil even was.  Then after we knew what it was, and gas prices rose, GM continued to churn out big gas-guzzling monster SUVs and big pickups.  People wanted smaller more fuel-efficient cars in the last 20 years, but GM didn’t respond with what they wanted.  If they had, it’s possible that  hundreds of people would have lost their jobs because GM had no contingency plan.  No “Plan B”, no plans for better cars (except the EV1).    Even when they were failing and the government gave them the first two ultimatums to shape up, GM didn’t take it seriously.  Now GM is in serious danger of failing for good.  But these little Segway vehicles won’t save them.

It didn’t have to be this way!  America had electric cars in the 1930’s.  Why didn’t GM start seriously making lots of hybrid vehicles and electric cars years ago?

Well, they did. In 1996  they made a very cool-looking electric car that was wildly  popular and a best-seller, called the EV1, pictured above.

(more…)