GM and Segway have teamed up before the New York Auto Show on what they're calling the PUMA project. The prototype vehicle was exclusively unveiled today on the Today Show. It's no April Fool's joke.

PUMA stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility and the prototype running around outside NBC's Today Show this morning is an experimental prototype of a vehicle Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development, and strategic planning, claims we'll see a roadable version by January.

The 300-pound prototype runs on a lithium-ion battery and uses Segway's characteristic two-wheel balancing technology, along with dual electric motors. It's designed to reach speeds of up to 35 miles-per-hour and can run 35 miles on a single charge.

There's other cool advantages as well. This PUMA pod, also could involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with each other, regulate the flow of traffic and prevent crashes from happening. The appliance-ization of transportation continues!

UPDATE: Segway just released the following video of Project P.U.M.A. in action (Hat tip to The College Driver!). We'll have our own video and photos from the live reveal underway right now here in New York very soon.

Send an email to Ray Wert, the author of this post, at ray@jalopnik.com.