In January 2006, a General Motors Futurliner sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $4 million.
Narrated with an AI voice. Written with AI help, fact-checked by the channel's editor.
Dale Hollis in this story is invented. The machine, the dates, the events and every real person named are documented.
GM built 12 of these 33-foot exhibit buses for its Parade of Progress, a traveling show of science and industry that toured from 1936 to 1956. This episode tests three answers to where the twelve went (GM kept them, they were scrapped, or other owners saved them) against the record, from Charles Kettering's idea in 1933 and the 1941 and 1953 tours to the brewery, state police, junkyard and collector years, and says how firm each finding is.
How this was made
- Research and script. Written with the help of an AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic), working from the sources listed below. Each factual claim is checked against those sources, and against a second source where one exists, in two separate AI fact-check passes and then by the channel's editor. Where sources disagree, the narration says so and gives each side.
- Narration. A synthetic voice from ElevenLabs' built-in voice set. It does not imitate anyone in the story.
- Pictures. Photographs and documents are real archival material, credited on screen and in the image credits in the pinned comment. Maps, diagrams, timelines and text cards are drawn for the channel by code; the maps, diagrams and timelines are labeled "Illustration made for the channel" while on screen. No picture in this episode was made by an AI image or video generator.
- Final checks. The finished video's audio is machine-transcribed against the script, and every shot is reviewed against what the narration says at that moment, both with AI tools.
- Approval. The channel's editor approves every episode before it is published.
- Corrections. If you find an error, please comment with a source. Corrections are listed in the pinned comment.
Chapters
0:00 Scottsdale, January 21, 2006
1:38 Kettering's idea, 1933 to 1940
3:23 Twelve Futurliners, 1940 to 1941
5:05 The second Parade, 1953 to 1956
7:18 Sold and scattered, 1956 to 1992
9:33 Rescues and prices, 1992 to 2015
11:42 What GM kept, and the answer
Where sources disagree: see the pinned comment.
Full sources: see the description and the pinned comment on the YouTube video.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KgIbQifBepo
