Personal Transportation

Personal transportation vehicles seem to be moving to two extremes: the overly large and almost, if not threatening (i.e. Hummer, Suburban), and the small and smaller (i.e. Ford Focus, Mini Cooper). Comparison between a Hummer and a Fortwo.Now comes a true extreme at the really small end of the spectrum, the Smart Fortwo, made by a division of Mercedes. With importing to Canada to begin this fall, you are sure to see it on U.S. roads near the border and budding U.S. aficionados are in dogged pursuit of a version that meets U.S. standards. Currently, only the diesel version looks promising, but it gets 70 mpg.

As you can see from the picture, taken from Hot Wheels, an article in Wired, it is diminutive, to say the least, but surprisingly safe due to its unique core cage construction. Still, I would not want to meet that Hummer on less than parked circumstances.

Isn’t technology interesting?