Every time I'm stuck in a ferry line up at one of the terminals in Vancouver's lower mainland, I ask myself why we don't all have our own vehicles. Inevitably its a cost issue and Fuel consumption issue, but perhaps no longer.

Ugo Conti, an Italian-born engineer and oceanographer and his wife Isabella, co-founded Marine Advanced Research, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based firm that built this Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel called the Proteus for about $1.5 million. The vessel which can crosss the Atlantic on a single tank of diesel fuel though it is unknown how big the tank is) measures 100 feet long and 50 feet wide reaching a maximum speed of 30 knots (34.5 mph).

Here is a news piece from MSNBC about the Proteus in New York this week.