Today I saw the embarrassing exposure of the General Motors "vehicle" offering in partnership with Segway - a cross between a golf cart and a baby carriage. My first reaction was that GM had undertaken such a fiasco with the Hummer that it was now going to the opposite extreme, and it would turn out about the same. The immediate reaction of the networks and those around me watching at the gym was laughter.

But the penny dropped for me when I read that the Obama Administration was going to impose tougher emission standards on the fleets of American auto manufacturers. The GM-Segway vehicles will be flogged off to mall cops and airport security and DoD will buy a bunch for their messengers to get around in the long halls of the Pentagon. A few may get sold in retirement communities instead of golf carts. But the only strategic purpose of this "vehicle" will be to pull down the average fuel consumption of the GM fleet so that it can meet the emissions and fuel economy standards while it continues to make gas guzzlers for fun and profit.