Toyota PM at Wired NextFest 2008

Live demo of Toyota’s Per­sonal Mobil­ity (PM) con­cept at Wired NextFest in Chicago:

I’m not sure that I’m buy­ing into these per­sonal mobil­ity vehi­cles. The PM reminds me too much of the chairs that all the over­weight space cit­i­zens in Wall•E used to hover around the Buy n Large ship (they are even net­work savvy). Is this really the future of per­sonal trans­porta­tion? I can’t imag­ine see­ing thou­sands of these chairs zip­ping around down­town Chicago, going in and out of build­ings and nav­i­gat­ing through all the revolv­ing doors. Will vehi­cles like the Toy­ota PM really become main­stream, or will they end up like the Seg­way—rel­e­gated to the role of park police offi­cers and sight-​​seeing tour fleets?

tagged: nextfest, toyota