Electric cars can still be awesome though, as proven by the Tesla Model S. But if you can't drive it it can't be fun to drive.
Everyone in my family drives an automatic. Constant criticism from me, absolutely hate autos. Give me a manual pls. Oh, and one of these: (imported from here)
Wait so you hate automatics, yet you want a car that was only ever available with a 3 speed auto... that logic It also made barely 105hp from its top trim 5.7l V8, so its not fun either (like seriously how did they even get it that bad)
The late 70s and early 80s were a bad time for V8s. We went from getting 300hp from a decent sized v8 in the late 60s to just barely breaking 150hp from mammoth engines in the late 70s. Emissions and fuel requirements are to blame.
A crape? Do you mean crap? Because if you mean crap, well...I'm just going to assume you didn't 'cause I don't want to prematurely start a flamewar. - - - Updated - - - As far as electrics go, Tesla is pretty badass. As far as ALL CARS go, well, no (IMO).
The P85D is the most awesome car ever built. 0-100 in 3.2 seconds without making a sound? As much as I like engine noises, that's absolutely awesome.
To be fair, that was the horrid diesel V8 that GM concocted. That said, the "best" engine, a 5L V8 only managed around 150hp (if they weren't lying) It's still not as bad as Cadillac though. they got 145hp from 6 litres (in 1981). I wonder if they were even trying. To put things into perspective, here's some other engines available in early 80's America. 1.6 litres. 112hp 2.8 litres. 145hp 2.8 litres. 168hp 2.8 litres. 180hp Emissions...
Hey man, the japs were used to making more with less. 60's america was all about making more with even more. Then emissions and fuel standards came along and slapped Detroit in the face. Completely knocked them off their feet. Then the 70s were all about making just enough with a ton.
Consider that his guess and the data you've presented conflicts with *every* other source. People in the 80s didn't think we would run out by today either, their guess was closer to the turn off the next century, current guesses are shorter due to increasing oil usage and that is even accounting for finding new oil fields. Regardless of whether we make it to 2100 with or without oil, we will run out at some point and we won't be able to drive our cars, they will be electric. Self driving is expensive now, but its all prototype hardware (which usually costs magnitudes more than production hardware in computing) plus computers are getting more powerful for the same price all the time (so a cheaper processor in future would still be powerful enough, cheaper processor in 10 years would likely be more powerful). As much as I prefer driving a nice stick shift, self driving is likely the future.
I swear I'm like the only one who has thought "Why not hide some solar panels, and make the wheels generate electricity on electric vehicles". Would that not make them much more efficient? EDIT : Just looked up the wheel generator thing, it would create more bad than good apparently
technically electric vehicles already do generate power via the wheels it's called regenerative braking
And solar panels don't really generate enough electricity to be worth the cost. If they were to make electric city buses though, then it would be different, since you could easily fit large solar panels on the roof.
Speaking of electric city busses, Nashville just bought some new hybrid busses when I went there a few months ago. They're those funk articulated ones too. They're really big and they're all aerodynamical and stuff. It's weird to be standing on the sidewalk and see such a huge vehicle silently whizz by.
If we did, then all cars would either be electric, hydrogen, some sort of renewable fuel substitute (as I'm aware there are many, it's just oil companies buy out the creators so they don't take off), or hell, maybe even nuclear fusion. But I still believe (as well as many of my friends, my family, and other people I know do) I will have oil all my life. My only problem with believing in self driving cars is that they are expensive (no matter how good computers get, they will always be pricey), many people probably wouldn't trust a computer with their lives, motorsport would probably die off, computer malfunctions can cause fatalities (like the car might drive off a hill due to malfunctions or the computer could be hacked, and if it runs on GPS for its movements, what if connection is interrupted? You'd either be stranded or warped around a tree. Although, they would probably think of something to prevent this, but you get the idea).
Current automatic transmissions, computerised. Engine management units, computers. Medical equipment, computerised, seriously, an automatic defibrillator has more computing power than got NASA to the moon or animated pacman in arcades of old. You already trust your life to computers. The tech required for a self driving car today will be cheap within a few years, raspberry pi, $35, 10 years ago, unthinkable, priceless. Moore's law is a brilliant thing. 32kb of ram used to cost £200 or more in the 80's, and that was 80's money too. £200 in the 80's, in today's money would get you an entire god damned laptop which is unimaginably more powerful than anything which could be dreamed of in the 80's. It will get cheaper. The computer used on apollo computer, less powerful than the EMV chip on bank/debit/credit cards, Apollo computer with millions, bank card itself (as a physical card, ignoring account its linked to), near worthless now. Must say, I am absolutely shocked the US doesn't use EMV yet (trademarked as chip and pin in UK), no wonder card fraud is so high, magstrips are so easy to falsify, the magnetic strip on bank cards in the UK is so worthless that it made no impact to me when it broke off as we solely use the chip. Hacking is always a very real risk though. But BMW, ford and Toyota have all been hacked quite badly before but people don't run screaming from them. BMW was even hacked without physical contact with vehicle (both ford and Toyota required hardware access, Toyota to canbus via obd port and ford needed splicing into engine loom)
How can Moore's law slow down? It is all based on consumerism, and that will never stop. Example, people like making more people, so we keep making people. People like things, so people keep making things. We figure out what we like most and the supply of it skyrockets because that is all we make. Price goes down due to supply and Moore stays happy. That is unless you are Michael Moore and have an eating disorder. A book about climbing made a good point once, that reviews/reviewers (or Moore's Law) always need something new to talk about. There will not be a new review of how great last years product is. GOTY is still last years game. Plus it took me time to remember what I was trying to say, try not to be so negative. That is the sticky side of oil. As far as self driving vehicles go, I am going to be pissed when one runs over a skateboard. Nature's perfect object that will act like nothing a computer can anticipate.