Created For The California Design Problem
GMC has come up with a solution to the rising costs of fuel and rent -- the GMC PAD. Created for the California Design Challenge, the PAD is a mobile city loft supposed to ease the difficulties of living in Southern California. The future of Motor Properties. See more pictures of idea automobiles. As an alternative of renting from a landlord and paying the usually sky-high SoCal rent charges, the owner of a PAD simply lives in it, and makes his dwelling wherever he occurs to be parked. To get to work, the PAD proprietor just parks his "mobile city loft" near the office and walks, avoiding the necessity of commuting on clogged highways. Higher nonetheless, he can use the PAD's on-board know-how to work instantly from throughout the PAD itself. The PAD is a excessive-tech motor home made for residing in full-time, not just for weekend trips. It is packed with the newest communications equipment and amenities, which is why GMC calls it a Living Activity Car, or LAV.
The GMC PAD would not actually exist, however. Common Motors' Superior Design Workforce created it for the California Design Problem, a contest held at the 2006 Los Angeles Auto Present. The theme for the challenge was "An L.A. Adventure." Ten different corporations, together with Hyundai, Scion, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, came up with concepts to reflect the extensive variety of activities available in Southern California. A panel of design specialists gave first place to the GMC PAD. Statistics in regards to the PAD are arduous to return by, since it solely exists as a pc design. It is comparable in measurement to a modern motor home -- in truth, it's probably shorter than some of the huge motor houses available on the market. It appears very wide, however for practical purposes, it can't be any wider than a regular visitors lane. Particular weight numbers will not be out there, although it could possible be comparable to a typical motor house. A 25-foot motor home weighs about 10,000 lbs.
300-horsepower engine. House-age supplies equivalent to composites might scale back the load, but the weight of the communications tools could compensate for that financial savings. The PAD includes DirecTV, OnStar and XM Satellite tv for pc WiFi. That means customers would have constant entry to more than 100 Television channels, high-velocity wireless Internet, and quite a lot of OnStar companies, together with car diagnostics, emergency assistance, and traffic, travel and weather data. You would not must work very exhausting to find that information, both. The inside partitions of the PAD are lined with large LCD screens. To keep every part working easily, GMC says that the PAD has "a teraflop of on-board Memory Wave Audio." This would not make much sense, since a teraflop is a measure of computational speed rather than memory capacity. Perhaps the PAD has on-board laptop techniques that can run at one teraflop. Or they might have meant "terabyte." Then again, possibly the PAD could make the Kessel Run in below 12 parsecs, too.
If kicking again and watching a DVD on an enormous LCD display is not relaxing enough, the aft portion of the PAD is a "private spa." This features a kitchen space with a "full suite of PAD-particular appliances created by Thermador," and different features created by Kohler. Whether this includes a working shower and bathroom is not indicated, but we will assume they're there. Saving on a monthly rent fee is not any massive help if you're caught paying a whole bunch of dollars for fuel each week. For that cause, PAD was designed to operate efficiently with the newest vitality applied sciences. A Diesel-Electric hybrid engine powers the PAD in each LiveMode and DriveMode. A totally computerized resource administration system permits the PAD to wring each final drop out of gas and potable water supplies, with the projected time between refills lasting weeks or months. To supplement energy calls for, six sq. meters of photovoltaic cells cowl the top of the PAD, charging on-board batteries with power collected from the solar.
The computers also control the suspension, giving the PAD a easy, straightforward experience and leveling it out mechanically in LiveMode. As a result of the PAD was created purely as a design project, it isn't necessarily meant to be a sensible vehicle. GMC has absolutely no plans to produce a prototype PAD, a lot less a production model for sale to the general public. But what would the GMC PAD be like if it did exist? It might most likely value a bundle, for one thing. New excessive-end motor homes can cost in the vary of $800,000 to $1 million, Memory Wave and fashions which are more modest can still attain $250,000. The PAD is actually a excessive-end machine, with its "infotainment" gadgets, LCD screens, solar cells and hybrid engine. At minimal, its price would have to be a couple of hundred thousand dollars. You'd have to dwell in it for a few years to make up that distinction in rent savings, and that does not take into consideration gas prices or considerations about the place you'd park your PAD.