GM EN-V Making North American Debut at CES

General Motors used this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to hold the North American debut of its EN-V concepts, managing to capture the public's attention. This comes after the concepts were featured as one of the main attractions of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai (the vehicles held this status for a period of six months).

"EN-V, short for Electric Networked Vehicle, is a vision of the future of urban personal mobility. Three different EN-V designs represent distinct characteristics that emphasize the enjoyable nature of future transportation: Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic) and Xiao (Laugh)," stated the press release.

The carmaker used a driving course located outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center to showcase the autonomous driving capabilities of EN-V, including a special feature - the vehicles can handle their own parking and automatically return to the user when this is requested via a smartphone application.

"At less than half the length of a Smart ForTwo six EN-Vs can fit into a standard American parking space while oneself-balancing two-wheeled EN-V provides interior space for two passengers. Using its sophisticated sensing technology, EN-V can detect obstacles in its path, including pedestrians or other vehicles, and automatically come to a stop," stated the press release, highlighting the concepts' main assets, innovation and practicality.

Subsequent to being presented at CES, the vehicles will be on static display at the North American Auto Show.

"The field of vision is really impressive as well," said Pike Research analyst John Gartner, who spent some time with the vehicles. "It's a great sense of being aware of everything around you."