Food for thought
Discussion
Clarkson said:
If the motor car were invented today, there is absolutely no way that any government in the world would let normal members of the public drive one. They’d argue it’d be too dangerous, too complicated and suitable only for presidents and members of the armed forces.
Happily, however, it was born at a time when the world hadn’t got round to muddling up liberty with freedom. And as a result, it’s become jolly popular. Today the world is groaning under the weight of 600m vehicles. And Japan alone is adding to that number at the rate of 22,000 a day. That is unsustainable growth.
It’s always hard to predict the future, but in our lifetime – unless you are shot prematurely – there will be only four motor manufacturers. One in America, one in Europe, and a couple in the Far East. And none will be making anything we would recognise as “a car”.
The notion of travelling with the wind in your hair down a country road at 100mph, with petrol providing the firepower and four big exhausts producing the soundtrack, will be an image every bit as outdated as diphtheria.
I have no doubt, for instance, that the speed-kills lobby will eventually win its argument. Dead babies trump 400bhp every time. So all cars will be fitted with a satellite-monitored electronic overlord that will physically prevent you from ever breaking the limit. I’m also confident that the steering wheel will be removed. Already Mercedes has technology that will apply the brakes whenever it’s necessary. The only thing that’s stopping them from fitting it is legislation; the same legislation that insists on two pilots in the cockpit on many commercial flights where only one is needed to actually fly the plane. Even though 80% of all plane crashes are caused by pilot error.
The upshot, then, is that you won’t actually drive your car. You will merely climb in, tell it where you want to go and sit back as it takes you there. Think Will Smith in I, Robot.
All this is certain. And anyone who begs to differ may as well sit on the beach in a robe telling the sea to go away.
Another thing that’s beyond doubt is that you won’t be driving round in a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius. These use just as much fuel as normal cars and are designed only to assuage the guilt of people whose opinions come from a man so hopeless he couldn’t even beat George Bush to the White House.
You will not have an electric car either. As the G-Wiz proves, They. Do. Not. Work. They run out of juice whenever it’s raining, or dry, or windy. And to charge them up again you have to plug them into a socket that is fed by . . . a power station. Yippee.
No. According to the eggheads, your car will almost certainly be powered by hydrogen. The most abundant gas in the universe. And something that, when burnt, produces nothing but water.
This raises an interesting question. If we’re so worried about melting ice caps and rising sea levels, what’s the world going to look like when 600m motor vehicles start to chuck water out of their tail-pipes? A point only I seem to have spotted thus far. Which means it’s probably irrelevant.
It is possible to use hydrogen in an engine instead of petrol or diesel. Using current technology, you lose about a fifth of the power, and that sounds bad. But come on. To be just 20% behind petrol, which has been fuelling engines for more than a hundred years . . . that’s not a bad starting point.
Except I don’t think it will be the starting point. I think that, soon, the holy grail will be cracked: the hydrogen fuel cell.
Think of it as a battery that is constantly charged by feeding it with hydrogen and oxygen. No, really. You mix them together and all you get in return is pure drinking water, and electricity. Which is then used to power your car, soundlessly, and for ever.
It all sounds like some kind of Monbiotic wet dream but the big players are close now. Close to making the dream of a world without oil a reality.
And please don’t imagine that you’ll have to tootle about in a road-going version of the Hindenburg, exploding in a Nagasaki-style fireball every time you drive under a pylon. The fact is that the best way of storing hydrogen is between the atoms in metal. Already some scientists reckon they have gone one better and have worked out a way of putting 30 litres in a single gram of graphite. And 30 litres would be enough to take a family saloon of the future 5,000 miles. So there we are. Problem solved. Personal transportation will survive. What will die, however, is the notion that “the car” symbolises personal freedom. As you sit there, being “driven” home, at a speed preordained by the government and on a route chosen by Nasa, you will have no control.
The device, the tool, the machine will be no more an extension of your hands and feet than a tumble dryer. It’ll be no more exhilarating than a vacuum cleaner. So yes, while the world will be cleaner and quieter, it’ll be like drowning in ditchwater.
It's flawed since hydrogen production currently relies on fossil fuels..... There will need to be some pretty big scientific breakthroughs until we can mass produce hydrogen without burning fossil fuels. It's the same situation as "electric" cars... to produce the batteries creates thousands of tons of CO2 and they're also toxic in the ground when they're not longer useful to the car. And to charge the batteries up requires thousands of tons of CO2 to be made in a powerplant. But of course "if we can't see smoke coming out the back of the car then everything is alright with the world!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_car
It's all one big con. Western governments have been thinking about it for almost 30 years and have finally, seemingly in the past 5 years, decided to make it all start happening. Even George Bush's administration who were previously like "erm what's global warming?" "erm what's a carbon dioxide?" have all of a sudden jumped on the bandwagon! There is money to be made!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_car
It's all one big con. Western governments have been thinking about it for almost 30 years and have finally, seemingly in the past 5 years, decided to make it all start happening. Even George Bush's administration who were previously like "erm what's global warming?" "erm what's a carbon dioxide?" have all of a sudden jumped on the bandwagon! There is money to be made!
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