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Afternoon Delight: The Future is a Very Small Car


by Jerome Weeks 7 May 2012 12:58 PM

But it’ll be highly, highly automated. We’re talking “in-vehicle video conferencing” and “automatic collision avoidance,” which, it goes without saying, need to be functioning at the same time.

CTA TBD


Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back weekdays at 1 p.m. for another one.

It’ll make the Smart car look roomier than an old Buick station wagon, but the EN-V will be highly, highly automated. GM developed three concept vehicles based on the Volt’s lithium batteries and the company’s OnStar technology. One was styled in California, another in Korea, the third in Shanghai (some of the roads in the video are actual Shanghai streets). All those glowing rays and beams emanating from these electric urban transports are various GPS trackers, collision avoidance sensors and other wireless doohickeys like “in-vehicle video conferencing” and “intelligent parking systems.”

Apparently, the EN-V will also come with such extra options as a tiny separate trailer to load the dog and kids and tow them behind.

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