These “Automobile buses” were made by the Vehicle Equipment Company of Long Island City, New York. Their literature called them “A combination of the commercial and pleasure types.”
The Vehicle Equipment Company was started in Brooklyn in 1901 by Robert Lloyd and Lucius T. Gibbs. By 1903 they had relocated to Long Island City on Borden Avenue.
From 1901 to 1906 they built a large number of commercial electric vehicles including broughams, victorias, hansoms, landaulets, and delivery trucks, ambulances, brewery trucks, tipping coal trucks, etc., and of course, sightseeing buses such as those above. From 1903 to 1905 they also built a 3-seat electric car called the VE Electric. Almost all of their vehicles were single motor shaft-drive. The company went into receivership in 1906, and the General Vehicle Company (GeVeCo), owned by the General Electric Company, purchased the factory and reorganized to build both gasoline and electric vehicles, as well as replacement parts. Vehicles built from mid-1906 on were known as GV Electrics.
By 1915 there were some 2,000 GV Electrics in New York City alone, representing more than 25% of all trucks of all types working daily in the city. The style of “Automobile bus” seen above was also very popular in Washington D.C. and other cities as well.
By this time GeVeCo was building under license the French-designed Gnome rotary engine (used in the first Fokker triplane) and they had the exclusive rights for Daimler Motoreen Gesellschaft airplane motors and were building the American Daimler truck and the Mercedes gasoline truck in addition to their own gasoline and electric vehicles.
In November 1915 General Vehicle Company announced the takeover of the Peerless Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. They formed the Peerless Truck and Motor Corporation, which was designed to expand their export trade.
During WWI the US Army bought a large number of Peerless trucks and England purchased 12,000 Peerless Truck Chassis. GeVeCo also built and exported hundreds of the Gnome aircraft engines. During the war they concentrated on these but weren’t building them fast enough to suit the government, so the War Department took over most of the factory to speed up production. Apparently vehicle production ceased at this time. A year later the entire factory was sold to Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation for $1,000,000.
General Vehicle Company did not resume building vehicles after the war, and even Peerless Truck and Motor Corporation ceased production in 1918 (the Peerless Motor Car Company continued to build cars until 1932).
Mansell Hackett purchased the Argo Motor Company in 1917 and established the Hackett Motor Car Company. Located in Jackson, Michigan, the company produced a line of touring cars and roadsters until 1918, at which time the company was moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and became the Lorraine Motors Corporation.
Above is the factory brochure image, below is the corner of the street photo from Shorpy
Seems the big wide open plains of the Candian west needed farmers, and they used this to spread the word. Just study that box of a body and let me know if it's anything but a one off single purpose built vehicle
1939 photo above, below is one of the traffic signal towers I've been posting, it's from a 1918 photo
photos from http://www.shorpy.com/
Above are a couple of guys with a REO Mountaineer, 1906... and have nothing but the similar cross country in an early car rlevance, to this story that follows (photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/8903?size=_original )
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=weasel
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/photos-of-unusual-from-days-gone-by.html 
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/few-more-from-shorpy.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Disney
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/chuck-yeager-american-hero-drove-hot.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/ms-linda-and-damn-big-shifter.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/05/ms-hurst-linda-vaughn-and-chrysler-300.html 
from http://www.shorpy.com/node/8314?size=_original thanks Steve!
From the commentor KCMORon on http://www.shorpy.com/node/8316?size=_original : It's my speculation that the covers were more than just variations of tread design, they were an extra layer pf protection from sharp rocks (no pavement) and the frequent flats were a fact of life, that's why there were 2 spare tires
Above found on http://www.atomicantiques.com/2010/02/05/rolling-chairs-on-the-boardwalk and the stroller on the left is the same as the bottom photo, the one on the right another variation like the below photo 
the above 2 from Shorpy http://www.shorpy.com/ , though the images have nothing to do with each other... I made the connection while looking through and saving the images I find interesting
Black and white from Shorpy, the color images are postcards from http://www.coffeedrome.com/bobspeed.html 
This is a 1922 Dodge Touring Car, DCFD Serial No. 05, assigned to the Superintendent of Machinery. The DCFD Repair Shop is in the background next to Engine Co. 8 quarters. The American LaFrance in one of Engine 8's apparatus bays may be a 1920 750 gpm pumper DCFD Serial No. 125 which was assigned to Engine 8
You wouldn't see these magnificent (if dangerous) horse carriages galloping up and down Fifth Avenue much longer at the time this photo was taken. 1900 was the year that the NY State Senate approved a bill allowing the Fifth Avenue Stage to run automobiles along the length of its newly-extended route.
Above from Shorpy
The color photos and write up are from http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/aff/8/aft/111626/afv/topic/Default.aspx 
These have to be from Shorpy originally, but I found them at http://zelastchancegaragedu78.blogspot.com/
