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1. Battery tech has been at a standstill for about 10-20 years. Most increase in battery power come from smaller chips and more efficient software.

2. Battery powered cars are useless at saving the environment when the majority of the worlds power is produced using fossil fuels.

Battery powered cars are not the future. The future is hydrogen powered cars.

Nope.
Battery Tech will evolve as fast as it "NEEDS" to evolve trust me on this.
Necessity is the mother of invention.

Batteries can be recharged from ANYTHING. Like Apple's new data centers, it only has to be planned and built, and the will to do it. Our ocean currents along could easy power the planet. It's more to do with people who own land wanting to make money from that land by selling what the land contains to get rich than any REAL reason.
If there was no Coal or Oil we will have already build other methods.

You come up today with some plan for green energy on a BIG scale, you are going to be up against those in POWER that could lose out due to your scheme, and also those who want to be making BIG money from you quicker than you can deliver. It's ONLY about humans making the most money in the fastest and easiest way possible. Nothing else.

Hydrogen is NOT an answer as it keeps the same old problem we have now.
We are keeping all the bad aspects in place just changing the liquid.

You will still need fuel stations to stop at, which want to make money.
You still need the transporters to deliver the fuel to these stations as they do now.
You will still have the BIG companies making huge profits from their supply of this other liquid.

Switching to Electric (whilst still early days) wipes out all of these 3 problems in one go.
 
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I think Apple is working on in-car electronics as well. Apple getting into the car business would be a horrible business decision, far worse than releasing a TV or watch.
When is Apple ever happy with controlling 1/5 of a product experience. In 2005 they incorporated iTunes on the new Motorola Rokr (
)
and in 2007 the iPhone was released. So CarPlay then Apple Car 6 years later.
 
Ford (mainstream carmaker for over a century)
Q1 2015
Revenues: $34 billion
Gross profit: $5.2 billion (15%)
Operating profit: -$869 million (-3%)

Porsche (luxury carmaker)
FY 2014 (note these absolute figures are for the entire fiscal year)
Revenues: €17.2 billion
Gross profit: €4.3 billion (25%)
Operating profit: €2.7 billion (16%)

Now look at Apple:
Q3 2015
Revenues: $50 billion
Gross profit: $20 billion (40%)
Operating profit: $14 billion (28%)

Keep in mind that Porsche is an established brand that is decades-old. It's one of the most profitable car companies. It also sells more than one vehicle. And it already has manufacturing facilities and other capital for its automotive business.

Apple currently has much, much higher operating profit than the best of the automotive companies. And they're doing it without having to take on the risk of entering a completely different industry. Why on earth would they take on risk to go into a field that has such low margins? Especially when Apple's way of cutting costs is to build everything in China? Chinese cars have a serious stigma attached to them—there's yet another uphill struggle to take on if they want greater margins.

You have several fair points. I know as much as any other Joe Shmo about Apples plans, but I will come at it from the angle that they have figured it out (or at least devised a scheme). Companies like Ford and Honda aren't even worth bringing into the conversation because we know that Apple would sell with a high design premium. My guess is that Apple thinks they can fit in nicely in a new space in the market that is neither luxury nor mainstream.

Thats assuming they sell their car they are making.

Also, the stigma could easily be overcome since Apple has built such trust with consumers while manufacturing and assembling phones, watches, and computers with incredible quality in China for so many years.

Its possible. Or there must at least be some people there who believe it is.
 
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Lights are already changing over the LED and other forms of lighting.
It would be so simple to have duplicate colours on both ends.
Think about how easy it is to change colours, or have a few extra LED type lamps in the car lights. It would not even be a problem doing that on todays new cars.

As for the crash test, indeed yes. The car would need to be made structurally identical front and rear. Which is a good thing. Who wants a car strong at the front, but you get killed as the back is weak.
If the structure is correct it would be a shell equally strong at either end.
I'm not saying it is impossible, there are additional considerations to make it feasible that when vehicles like yours will be around with old tech vehicles.
Regarding the crash test you can have a tank that will she'll against any kind of impact imaginable by other vehicles, the issue I'm referring to is how well the seating will withstand and damping it. Otherwise it will be a huma maraca.
 
Electricity still needs to be generated, so unless it's all/mostly generated by non fossil fuel methods, the electrical power generated by fossil fuels will still be there.
3D printing of organs is a reality.

But there are alternate ways to get electricity: photovoltaic , water, wind turbines. (dreaded nuclear , if one wants to touch that) etc.

Just burning fossil fuel until there is no more makes no sense.
 
I read somewhere that when they were testing Google cars they had 14 (might be wrong, quoting from memory) accidents and all of them were caused by human errors. BUT at the same time there are lots of people driving around that never had an accident, because they know to expect human errors and how to compensate for them.
The last accident was a bit hard to avoid. Stuck in a lane, two cars in front of the Google car stopped, and the car behind not braking...

That said, experienced drivers gain a built-in "trouble-detector". Maybe a really good driver would have _known_ that the car behind is trouble, and left more space to the car in front.
 
Huh? Lived in MA most of me life and have never seen a road like that. That road is like that because it's not a public road and not maintained. It's a private facility as mentioned in the article. MA and NH have rougher roads because it gets so cold. Every year they do most all of the major roads over but after the winter pot holes naturally appear especially from all the salt from having to plow so much each year. Assuming your speaking of stereo types rather than someone who actually lives around here.
To be fair, I'm only familiar with Springfield, where I visited my brother when he lived there. The roads were AWFUL because the tolls they collected never went to what they were supposed to go to.
 
Cold weather states like Massachusetts have winter weather. This brings snow, which melts during the day, and refreezes at night. Ice entering small cracks in the road expands and destroys roads rapidly. In the Northeast, significant potholes can open overnight. It has nothing to do with government; it's entirely due to winter. I've lived in the region for over sixty years, including a number of decades in MA. In MA, roads are constantly being resurfaced in the warmer months, when work can be done. I'm not surprised you don't see it in SC, due to the more temperate weather.
When why do Connecticut roads look fine? Fact is, Mass. does not fix roads like they should.
 
Perhaps auto-driven cars could be a good thing.

I love cars, driving and just about everything that goes along with that and own several (IMO) classic German cars. I used to be fairly against autonomous/self-driving/driver-assist cars, but a few months ago I was driving home from work...

I happen to live off a small road, but it also happens to be nearly the only good way to get from a highly populated area north of town into a part of the city where two of the three major hospitals are in close proximity and the third isn't that much further as well as one of the main industrial areas. Fortunately, where I work is in the opposite direction of rush-hour traffic! Often I will be the only car on my side of the road while the opposite lane is bumper to bumper as far as the eye can see. That ride home from work the other month was one of those days and it hit me. THEY DON'T CARE! They would just as soon be on a train or in a self driving car looking at facebook! Hell, 75% of them are on facebook already!

At that moment I realized, for better or worse, self driving cars really are the future. I'll cling to my rolling coffins as long as I can, but I have to admit, it is the way of the future.
 
1. Battery tech has been at a standstill for about 10-20 years. Most increase in battery power come from smaller chips and more efficient software.

2. Battery powered cars are useless at saving the environment when the majority of the worlds power is produced using fossil fuels.

Battery powered cars are not the future. The future is hydrogen powered cars.

You're too funny.

Regarding point 1, that's not true. Batteries have been slowly getting better. And even if they weren't that's not a "fundamental flaw" for electric cars. There are other electricity storage devices besides batteries. One could even argue batteries are good enough right now for a lot of cars. Ever heard of Tesla? The Nissan Leaf?

As for point two, you're also wrong in more than one way.

1. Even when charged from a fossil fuel source an electric car is less polluting than a gas one.
2. As solar and wind power increase (and they are) your point becomes moot.

Even if electric cars were "useless for saving the environment" that doesn't mean they are "fundamentally flawed". Unless your only definition for not being flawed is saving the environment.

3. Hydrogen is just another energy storage mechanism, which so far hasn't proved practical, unlike batteries. The problems of storing hydrogen for automotive use are proving hard to solve. Might be practical someday, but a long way from clearly being "the future".
 
You're too funny.

Regarding point 1, that's not true. Batteries have been slowly getting better. And even if they weren't that's not a "fundamental flaw" for electric cars. There are other electricity storage devices besides batteries. One could even argue batteries are good enough right now for a lot of cars. Ever heard of Tesla? The Nissan Leaf?

As for point two, you're also wrong in more than one way.

1. Even when charged from a fossil fuel source an electric car is less polluting than a gas one.
2. As solar and wind power increase (and they are) your point becomes moot.

Even if electric cars were "useless for saving the environment" that doesn't mean they are "fundamentally flawed". Unless your only definition for not being flawed is saving the environment.

3. Hydrogen is just another energy storage mechanism, which so far hasn't proved practical, unlike batteries. The problems of storing hydrogen for automotive use are proving hard to solve. Might be practical someday, but a long way from clearly being "the future".
So let's name these other power storage devices?

Since lithium powers batteries came along, battery tech has largely stood still, yes there has been increase in efficiency, but not significant.

Battery power is not suitable for a lot of reasons. Let's say you don't live in a house where you can park your car immediate outside your house (here in the UK there is no legal right to park outside your own home). Let's say you have to park a few hundred yards up the road, ok so where you park your car there could be an installation point, now let's say too many people park there and some people have to park on the grass verge. 7 parking spaces with charges points and 10 cars mean some people can't charge their cars. Ok so most houses in the USA will have parking outside their homes, but in other countries where houses largely pre-date the modern day car, it's not at all a 100% option.

You say there are cars out there with batteries now. Yes there is, in fact the Nissan Note and their batteries are made literally down the road from me. The thing is though the batteries in these cars have a lifespan of 5 years at most, even Hybrids. There is hardly any Prius' on the road now over this age, and if they are their batteries are either gone or just about gone. So there you have it, the average life time of an electric car is 50% of that of an ordinary car.

Now let's look at range. The range of these cars tend to be small before they need to re-charge and studies have she on that real world range is a lot more shorter than the publicised range. If you only need your car to get you to work and back and maybe down to the shops then yes, they maybe an option for you. However let's say you do a lot of commuting, having a range of 100 miles is no good if you have to travel more than that a day. Rapid charging isn't an option if you need to be in a meeting for 12 and the rapid charge won't be complete until 1:30. Rapid charging isn't exactly rapid in most cases, and if you look closely the manufacturers tend to say that rapid charging reduces the life of your battery.

Now let's look at cost. Here in the UK Vauxhall have a car called the Antara which is electric, it's price starts at about £30k, it is basically a rebadged Vauxhall Astra which starts at £15k. So there you are, the average electric car costs 100% more than an ordinary car and has 50% less of the life span, and much less practicality.

Hydrogen does have a long way to go, but hydrogen cars have been on the roads for years, hydrogen has been used for years. As a matter of fact hydrogen cars are becoming so popular in their use that the state of California are investing in hydrogen service stations.
 
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