When it comes to selling cars, GM’s tanking … bad. They need help. So, who should they turn to? Toyota? BMW? How about Segway?
Yes, GM has hitched its broken wagon to Segway’s novelty star, hoping to redesign urban transportation.
They’re testing the P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), a two-seater version of the vehicle that almost killed an American president and served as a visible punchline in The Benchwarmers and Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
Still not realizing that people like cars because they run faster than bikes and horses, the P.U.M.A. is capable of a brisk 35 mph and can travel 35 miles on a single charge. (We’re not sure what its developer’s fascination is with the number 35, but we’re betting its close to the number of people who own the original.)
Just to give you an insight on how little of a clue GM really has, here’s the skinny on bonus features by their head of Research and Development, Larry Burns:
“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.”
You hear that? GM thinks they can sell anything if they plug it into Twitter.