I used to laugh at the folly that was General Motors. Time after time, GM would follow a familiar pattern with ground-breaking products.

- Some of GM’s best and brightest come up with a ground-breaking new product, something that truly could change the automotive industry.

- Bean counters force the designers and engineers to cobble the thing together with parts-bin pieces and then push them to get it on the road before it’s ready.

- Continue fine-tuning the vehicle after it has gone on sale, essentially turning customers into final development engineers.

2011 Chevrolet Volt

It’s been a familiar pattern for the company since the days of the Corvair right up to the Pontiac Solstice. Aaron Severson has written a very good history of the Pontiac Fiero that shows just how GM found itself in such a predicament.

http://jalopnik.com/5501545/pontiac-fiero-the-definitive-history?skyline=true&s=i

The Fiero could have been a great idea. The unique structure made it one of the safest cars – in a crash – of its day, despite it’s small size. Danger from engine fires was another story.

But saddled with an inferior suspension, antiquated engine, and not given enough development time and money, the first Fieros were awful. Then, just as GM had developed the car to a point where it was competent, they killed it.

Now, GM is on the verge of introducing another revolutionary product, but this one is no boutique sports car. This time, GM’s entire existence is riding on the company’s latest Big Idea.

If the Chevy Volt works like it is supposed to when production begins late this year, it will completely change the way this country operates. Think that is an overstatement? Hardly.

The Volt promises to deliver up to 40 miles of gasoline-free driving after a full charge. After that, a small gasoline engine will power the car, giving it the range of your average modern car, about 300 miles.

For most people, that 40 miles will be enough take them to work and back plus a few errands. Plug it in at home overnight and you’re good for another 40 miles without the gas engine. Most people will be able to get through their entire work week without the gas engine firing.

There have been other electric vehicles that could do that. But here’s the magic of the Volt: On the weekend, let’s say you want to go up north. A full electric vehicle will be of no use because of limited range and the extended time it takes to recharge. But with the Volt, once the battery is exhausted, the gasoline engine is ready to take over, giving you all of the range of a typical car. When it gets low on fuel, pull into a gas station in fill ‘er up, just like a regular car. Drive some more. Repeat.

Change the world: What if people across the country switched to a Volt or one of the vehicles that will GM will develop using the Voltec system? Dependence on foreign oil would go down. We could reduce the amount of the stuff we have to suck out of the ground in places where the people don’t like us.

But to make it happen, GM has to convince the public that they’ve got it right this time. This can’t be like GM’s ill-fated diesels of the late ’70s. It can’t be another Fiero where the public has to endure three years of additional development with them as the guinea pigs.

The Volt is an entirely new kind of car. GM has to get it right or the public might not accept the new idea of extended-range electric vehicles.

Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, said he’s not sure the market for amphibious cars that Gibbs Technologies is counting on is going to be very big.

To read the full story, visit Amphibious wllz

Experts who gathered for a forum on connected vehicles sponsored by the Center for Automotive Research disagreed about the timeframe.

Jeff Adik, chairman and founder of Intraduce Transit, said what the industry is calling IntelliDrive could be a reality as soon as 2016, but Dave LeBlanc, assistant research scientist for the University of Michigan Transportation Institute, said it won’t happen that soon. Chris Borroni-Bird, director of advanced technology vehicle concepts for General Motors, predicted connected vehicles hitting the road in a decade.

One challenge, said Steve Millstein, president of the ATX Group, will be to find a balance between the autonomous car and allowing the driver to have control of the vehicle. Millstein said that he enjoys driving his BMW 6-Series and isn’t ready to give it up to a computer all of the time.

“Driving is a passion for me, but for some, it’s not,” Millstein said.

Part of the project to connect vehicles will also allow companies to research consumer wants and needs. Car owners will have the option of customizing their cars. For example, instead of the typical instrument panel of today’s cars, future vehicles could have a computer-generated heads-up display that is personalized by the driver.

Borroni-Bird said that the connected vehicle may prove to be more efficient than even mass transit systems because the vehicles would drive exactly to and from where the occupants need to go instead of a general route that takes occupants out of their way for the sake of others. The space needed for parking could even be reduced because autonomous cars wouldn’t need as much space for getting into and out of parking spaces since the vehicles would be able to coordinate and better arrange themselves.

Borroni-Bird said one of the keys will be maintaining the freedom and personal statements people have with the current range of vehicle choices.

“Those are things that people cherish about personal mobility that we want to preserve,” Borroni-Bird said.

LeBlanc said UMTRI is getting ready to conduct a study where real-world drivers will test Honda Accords and heavy trucks retrofitted with active crash avoidance technology. In the pilot project leading up to the full study, LeBlanc said institute researchers found people are receptive to the new technology.

“People liked it,” he said.