Will the P.U.M.A. change transportation?

A number of media outlets today noted the unveiling of the P.U.M.A., short for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, from GM and Segway. 

"Think of a larger, two-passenger, sit-down version of the Segway PT, with two gyroscopically balanced wheels.  The prototype has minimal bodywork, but podlike enclosures (which look like computer mice on wheels) are imagined for production," writes Jim Motavalli in The New York Times' Wheels blog.

The electric vehicle is powered by lithium-ion batteries and can reach a top speed of 35 m.p.h., and it is so small that six P.U.M.A.s could fit within a standard parking space.

The companies don't plan to sell the vehicle at this time, but are showing it off as "a bit of blue-sky thinking about better ways to move around crowded urban areas."  Indeed, with a presumed cost higher than $5K (Gothamist notes that a standard Segway PT costs bout $5K), it's price point may be too close to value automobiles that offer more space, cargo, and horsepower.

Perhaps PSFK's Dan Gould offers the best commentary on this new vehicle, noting that while this thing is "kind of cool, no [doubt,] wouldn’t a bike be a better, less complicated solution for urban transport?"  Not to mention cheaper, smaller, and completely energy-neutral.

What's really exciting about planned future innovation for these vehicles, however, is in their communicative abilities, both with each other, and with a central power grid.  Larry Burns, G.M.’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, told the Times that

Project P.U.M.A. vehicles would be designed to tap into the two-way communications made possible by G.M.’s OnStar technology, which has six million North American subscribers. The vision is expansive: using 'vehicle to vehicle,' or V2V, communications, these '100 percent digital' devices would communicate with one another over a quarter-mile range to prevent collisions, eventually allowing what G.M. calls 'autonomous driving and parking.' . . .

There’s more: the pods would also be equipped to communicate with the smart grid of the future (as is the Aptera EV, another podlike electric vehicle that is due to be introduced in the fall), returning electricity to utilities during times of peak demand. That’s not V2V, it’s V2G — vehicle to grid.

That is an innovation that would change transportation.

"The Project P.U.M.A." image by yufujamar.

Read more...

Under Brooklyn

There is a (no-longer) secret tunnel in Brooklyn!  Bob Diamond confirmed the existence of an abandoned subway tunnel under Atlantic Avenue in 1981. 

In the late 1970s, Diamond was an engineering student with a taste for New York transit lore. He first heard about the tunnel’s possible existence on a radio show, which hosted a discussion about a book called The Cosgrove Report by G.J.A. O’ Toole.  The report suggested, among other things, that lost pages of John Wilkes Booth’s diary are hidden in a train car buried in a secret tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

This tunnel is unique for reasons other than its forgotten-ness.  In fact,

• The tunnel, consisting of approximately 12 blocks of track, became the world’s first “grade-separated” transportation or “subway” when it was built in 1844.
  
• The tunnel should have been destroyed.  Electus Litchfield was paid $130,000 to fill the tunnel when it was declared a nuisance in 1850, but "instead simply capped its ends, sealed its manhole covers, and forged documents to state that the tunnel had been completely refilled."
• The train supposedly trapped inside the tunnel has yet to be found, but Diamond is confident it, along with another 6 blocks of tunnel, are behind a stone wall.
  

In related, interesting news, the tunnel was built to help solve the problem of trolley-pedestrian collisions.  These accidents were apparently so common that the original name for the Brooklyn Dodgers was the Brooklyn Trolley-Dodgers (!).

Diamond conducts 1.5-hour tours of the tunnel, and there is a documentary called, "What's Behind the Wall?" about Diamond's quest currently in production.


Thanks, PSFK.

Both the top "Atlantic Ave Tunnel Tour" image and the bottom "Atlantic Ave Tunnel Tour" image by silatix.

Read more...