While Detroit Slept

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.html?hp

by anthonyrubin • 18 years ago

19 7 18 years ago

nytimes.com

kqr2• 18 years ago

Better Place wants to use the cell phone model of buying minutes to buying miles on their electric vehicle network:

http://www.betterplace.com/our-bold-plan/business-model/

mixmax• 18 years ago

Here's another Danish alternative to Detroit http://www.ruf.dk/ since the author brings it up.

Wouldn't worry too much about them though, they've been going for 20 years and only have a test-setup to show for it.

jmtame• 18 years ago

The innovation will come from somewhere, and it probably won't be from us because we're so busy defending our father/mother/aunt/uncle/cousin who worked at one of the Big Three that we don't care about innovation right now, we want our comfortable pensions, dammit!

kingkongrevenge• 18 years ago

The entire global car industry is screwed; this is not about detroit. There's massive global overcapacity. Companies like Honda and VW will probably lapse into financial crisis next year.

Personally, I would bet money on sub $200 bicycles before electric cars. The techno fetishists just don't get where things really are both financially and in terms of energy supply.

ntoshev• 18 years ago

Do you have a reference/data about this global overcapacity?

I also think all-electric cars can't win big anytime soon. On the other hand, the Chevrolet Volt concept seems really good to me. It would also provide incremdntal incentives for building charging infrastructure that would pave the way for purely electric vehicles - it can solve the chicken and egg problem there.

systems• 18 years ago

well the analogy is a bit off, I do not agree with the bailing out in general, I think it's akin to curing the symptom as opposed to the real desease

But electric cars are still cars, they ride on roads, mechanical etc ...

It's shell, exxonmobile and Saudi Arabia who might need to worry. Electricity is a real substitute product to theirs

Many companies cut RnD costs by following the principal of "don't innovate imitate" cars were invented in USA but this "innovation" found it's way to europe and Asia

Detroits problem is not innovation, it's implementation. Which sort of explain how the bailout might actually be sane

lmao• 18 years ago

General Motors produced electric cars over 10 years ago, it just wasn't profitable at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

It is also interesting to note that 50% of the electricity generated in the United States in 2006(latest report available) came from burning fossil fuels.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html

While Detroit Slept

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