Inventor: General Motors
The car of the future looks something like this: It has no engine, no steering column and no brake pedal. It requires no gasoline, emits no pollution (just a little water vapor) and yet handles like a high-performance Porsche. It might sound like an environmentalist's fantasy, but there it was on display at the Paris Auto Show last September: the Hy-wire, a politically correct, fully functional prototype that General Motors claims could be road ready by 2010.