Lisa Guillen

GM + Segway = P.U.M.A

It’s been a couple days since I saw this floating around the internet so it’s likely you’ve seen it too but if not, you’re in for a treat.

The P.U.M.A. ( Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) project has put together the awesomeness of a Segway and a car. 

It’s just a concept as of now so who knows when/if it will be available for sale but I would totally buy one.

The companies say the idea would be to create PUMA lanes like bicycle lanes on streets. Though I’d assume it would just be easier to make the bike lanes slightly bigger and just makes them accessible to both. They’re intended for use in cities just like Segways are used now but of course these are way better and to me look far less dorky. (It would be easier to take a Chicago cop seriously seeing him in a puma vs a standard segway) You can only go about 35 mph and only travel 35 miles with one charge. That means I could go from my apartment in Wrigleyville to Columbia in the South Loop and back and still have some charge left over, not bad. There isn’t any foot action either, to stop you pull back on the steering wheel and to accelerate you push it forward. There also isn’t any key, everything is done wirelessly with a handheld, which I would assume is basically just a remote. For someone like me who doesn’t really want to own a car and wants to live in a big city this is perfect. I love public transportation but I wouldn’t mind owning one of these and using it on a nice day. I hope they decide to actually mass produce these within the next couple years, I think they’d be useful for a lot of people. Plus, no gas!