GM debuted their four ENV (Electric Networked Vehicle) prototypes at the recent Las Vegas CES. I was lucky enough to ride in one and they are so cool. Truly, they could revolutionize urban mobility – and yes they do drive autonomously. One of the GM engineers even had an application on his iPhone that allowed him to remotely park and access “his” vehicle (thanks Pri!) – just think of how this could work on a Friday or Saturday night in San Francisco’s Mission District or North Beach as your tooling around looking for an elusive parking space. Just think of these going up and down a re-imagined Market Street or along the Embarcadero? Why not make these the “official car” of the 2013 America’s Cup? Or have them be on eof the ways you get around the proposed new Treasure Island development in SF Bay? These are the future of urban mobility in a way that the Tesla is not – the US government should think about buying back those GM shares they recently sold! The ENV’s are hotter than hot and could potentially have a huge market in a place like San Francisco or the more urban parts of the bay area. Folks, get behind GM on this – this is not your fathers’ or grandmother’s company anymore. They have some very forward-looking talented engineers and designers who could really help change the face of urban america. Let’s get behind the “home team” and help them help us to reinvent urban mobility and reclaim our urban public realm (and yes I am aware of the irony of GM being this partner, but we’re in post-ironic times now). Like Nixon went to China and helped set in motion what we see today, so GM can reach out to a wider audience than us bay area types can normally reach and show them that cool sustainability doesn’t need to be feared and can be fun.
2 of GM's ENV's at Las Vegas CES
GM's ENV ("Redcar"?) at Las Vegas CES
GM's ENV at Las Vegas CES