On Wednesday, 24 January 2018 06:52:56 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote:

It's always amusing to see people who lack imagination and ignore the
fact that there has never been a new technology that didn't rapidly
result in the creation of whatever it needed in the way of support.

Some say that petrol driven cars were a reaction to an excess of horse manure. Some say negative arguments over AGW and 'alternatives' is another load of horse manure. If we could only get the horse manure out of the equation we could move on.

Is anyone still driving a car from the 1910s? With a few exceptions there aren't even many 30-year-old cars on the roads today. This suggests continuing evolution a whole century after the invention of the basic motor car.

With electric cars and their support infrastructure we not only have a century of evolution to build on. We also have a century of all-round expertise in vehicle mass production, efficient labour organization but also robots, CAD and electronics to boot.

Back in 1910 there was almost nothing except resistance to change. Women still wore foolishly long skirts which dragged in the horse droppings and only the wealthy/criminals could afford a useful motor car. It took another 50 years for many Europeans to afford a secondhand car.

Tesla proved that startups can still disrupt existing [global] vehicle manufacture and their ostrich-like, management mentality. Back in 1910 it was nothing but startups in vehicle manufacture. That lasted until Ford organized serial production.

Today's world is almost totally unrecognizable from a century ago. A time traveler from 1910 would think they had traveled to another planet. Most people alive today still think there is another planet available somewhere just around the next bend. Placed there just to provide all the needs of another 5 billion car drivers, or more.

Cars forced a sea change in human behaviour a century ago. Are "cars" still, really the very best we can possibly manage as an intelligent species? After a century of [usually] only the driver being transported at walking pace we haven't really learned much about adapting human behaviour "for the greater good."

Most journeys involve periods at a complete standstill in filthy and dangerous, often gridlocked traffic! Yet still billions of human beings make exactly the same mistake every morning and evening and often in between.

Most car journeys are short enough to walk or cycle, if it wasn't for the bløødy traffic! Perhaps they should just stop providing car parking altogether? There were no car parks in 1910 but there was already road chaos!

If cars ran on air and were made of candyfloss there would still be traffic jams. As selfish and arguably insane individuals, demand the same _moving_ road space as that required for a bus packed full of passengers!

Once they have vehicle control taken away from them the car driver becomes superfluous. They can travel in a vehicle better suited to the reclining, human physique.

Or, preferably, not bother to travel at all. Anyone who drives to sit in a personal office has absolutely no need for centralization of labour. Once their door closes you don't exist to your colleagues. So why even be there? Arrogance? Habit? Fear?

Why not turn a large TV screen sideways and prop it behind your desk? If anyone knocks on the office door you just sit in front of a remote camera. Or do something else far more interesting. Than pretending you actually have a purpose in business life after AI.