Let's Get Small: The Pod-Like Cars of the Future Won't Fly, But They'll Be WAY Easier to ParkIn 1939, General Motors wowed the world with its daring vision of the future of transportation as dramatized in its Futurama exhibit at the World's Fair in New York City. It set the clock forward to 1960, when, GM forecast, people would all own their own cars, drive them on interstate highways, and enjoy high-speed platooning of multiple vehicles (still to come). The General is planning another such display to go live at the next World's Fair, Expo 2010 opening in Shanghai, China this summer. Not surprisingly, the theme of the show hosted by one of the world's true megalopolises is "Better City, Better Life."GM and Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) are again projecting 20 years into the future, when it is believed that urban areas will accommodate more than 60 percent of the world's 8 billion people. This will put tremendous pressure on a public infrastructure that is already struggling to meet the growing demand for transportation and basic services. If living standards are to continue rising and the denizens of this crowded future still hope to enjoy personal mobility (predictions put the vehicle fleet at 1.2 billion cars), the paradigm has to shift. Radically.