Fuel cell AUTOnomy

General Motors stunned the North American International Auto Show audience with a fuel-cell concept intended to revolutionize the way vehicles are designed, built, and operated.

The basic configuration of the conventional automobile has remained basically the same for the last century, with little deviation from the internal-combustion engine and gear transmission providing propulsion, with mechanical linkages from major controls to steering and brakes. However, in the past few years, the automotive industry has begun developing increasingly realistic alternatives in propulsion with hybrids and fuel cells, and has been gradually moving away from strictly mechanical control systems. But recent developments have been closely rooted in the conventional configurations of the past.

In conceiving the AUTOnomy concept vehicle for January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, General Motors Corp. attempted to break with automotive convention. According to Rick Wagoner, President and CEO of GM, “We started with the premise, ‘What if we were inventing the automobile today rather than a century ago? What might we do differently?’”