While everyone else is resigned to a future of neo-Spartan tribal warfare over dwindling resources, GM is still clutching hopefully to the most 1970s of sci-fi visions: pod cars. This is the latest version of GM's Electric Networked Vehicle concept, aka Sir James Dyson's coffin.
GM's ongoing EN-V project is its conceptual solution to the problem of getting people around en masse in increasingly crowded urban settings. The point is to merge key elements of computer networking and cars: with GPS-driven vehicle-to-vehicle communication, plus distance-sensing technologies, the electric EN-V can be driven, or can operate autonomously. Imagine a three-dimensional version of the Internet, with each of these cars representing a "packet" of data (i.e., people), and you get some idea of what's possible when thousands of these pods are networked together.
The latest version adds new a new body style, as well as climate control, more storage space and the potential to be operated in all weather and road conditions.
And just wait until you can Google yourself to 14th street, but only if you can defeat the Baseball Furies in hand-to-hand combat.