Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Auto future


The new highway standard of 35MPG in 2020 is pathetic. We have had cars in the past that have gotten much better mileage than that, and indeed have cars today that get much better mileage than that also. Passing such laughable standards for more than a decade from now is not even trying. My hope is:

1. Gas stays high and continues to go up

2. Viable Plug-in electric cars, and half plug-in half flex fuel cars on the market ASAP.

3. The American public doesn't get suckered into Hydrogen, that we can see that carrot for what it is.

One current obstacle to Plug-in hybrids is there limited range, but I'm not worried about that all, the ranges will grow, the batteries will charge faster and faster in the future, and it can't be hard to set up a "gas" station with everyday plugs and outlets. Take your average gas station design and put solar panels on top of the island and you're almost in business. And even if there weren't enough stations around, I'm sure a alternative would pop up on the Internet. Someone would design a site and practically overnight a community of people all over the country, who would let you charge your car at their house, would be created. Imagine that, no more oil companies manipulating the market, just everyday people deciding what they want to charge. It would be a communal "let us do this ourselves" instead of "let's get fucked over at the local gas station where we have no control" I watched a very inspiring speech yesterday, which was basically about the power of the Internet as a tool for bringing like minded people together on a scale as never before, there are many examples of it; and I think it if our government, our auto companies, and the oil companies continue to make the wrong choices and think they can advertise the common sense out of us, then before you know it we'll have more examples of how the Internet can helps us do things for ourselves.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Re: gas milage~those posted milage "factors" posted on the window of a new car or advertised in a magazine is not the milage the average driver gets to start with. Those 'comparisome' tests are done under the best conditions & really don't reflect how most people drive. So the expected miles is always suspect~people should remember that when taking that information into account.

And lets hope people get tired of the higher & higher gas prices~their anger is the only thing that will make alternatives happen.