Reinventing the automobile in today's GM webchat

Apr 30th 2010 at 9:57AM
Hot on the heels of yesterday's online chat with Chelsea Sexton about the EV1 and the Chevrolet Volt (read it here), General Motors has lined up another discussion, this time with someone who's spent a lot of time thinking about where cars are headed in the near (and far) future. The chat is titled "Reinventing the Automobile" and will feature Christopher Borroni-Bird, GM's director of advanced technology vehicle concepts. Borroni-Bird co-authored of the book "Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century."
What's that book about? Apparently, there are four big ideas that can transform the automobile:
  1. Base the underlying design principles on electric-drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation
  2. Develop the Mobility Internet for sharing traffic and travel data
  3. Integrate electric-drive vehicles with smart electric grids that use clean, renewable energy sources
  4. Establish dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles
The book was co-written with former GM vice president of research and development Lawrence Burns and William Mitchell, professor of architecture and media arts and sciences at MIT. The chat starts at 2 p.m. EDT today and you can participate after the jump. We expect at least of you to bring up the Puma.

[Source: GM]



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