The End of Combustion Vehicles

The final section of Ch.2 of Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress

In the final section of Ch. 2, Vehicles (and Weapons), Stewart writes on the end of combustion vehicles:

BY 2011, THE WORLD’S AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY was enormous, intensely competitive, and asleep.  Car manufacturing, inspired by Toyota’s “lean production system,” had become highly efficient and perfectionist but also conservative.  Innovations came piecemeal from all over the map—stability control from one company, GPS navigation from another, bluetooth integration from somewhere else.  That’s the norm in a mature industry with many players in prolonged close competition.  Progress comes in distributed increments rather than concentrated leaps.  

But then in 2012, a brash new company introduced a glamorous version of an ancient kind of car, and everything changed.  Motor Trend magazine gave the new vehicle their “Car of the Year” award with an unprecedented unanimous vote.  Consumer Reports magazine declared it was probably the best car ever built and assigned it their highest rating—99 out of 100.¹

The car could accelerate from zero to 60 mph in a whiplash 4.2 seconds.  It was rated the safest car in history.  It seated seven, with luxurious features controlled from a huge touch-screen next to the driver.  Its engine was twice as efficient as anything else on the road.  And most importantly, its exhaust was free of greenhouse gases because there was no exhaust at all. 

The new company was Tesla. 

Read the piece here. Collaborate here.

We will see you in a few months for Ch. 3.