New 2020? Tesla Roadster...OMG!

Will Tesla be alive in 2020?

87elco said:

Ugh could you imagine going to a motorsports track and it just be silent. I wouldn't go anymore

Click to expand...

Good point. Although the Formula E cars definitely make noise!

BarracksSi said:

I can't believe how quickly we're moving towards eliminating internal combustion vehicles. Then again, it's been nearly fifty years of work to get this far (going back to the first emissions standards), so we should've been expecting the change.

Click to expand...

I'm going to be a kook and say that while, yes we careen towards an electric vehicle future, we'll inevitably find our way back to combustion engines.

I like some of the aspects of electric cars but I also dislike a lot... Allow me to write about things I know nothing about, please.

What kind of resources are we eating up with these batteries? Are they recyclable and/or renewable?

How good for the environment, really, is centralized power (meaning the power plants now belch out more junk, in one place, than our relatively clean burning combustion engines that are spread out all over?). We're also trying to convert to wind and solar? There's no way, if everyone is driving electric, that those power platforms will be able to keep up.

Ya ever seen a Tesla battery catch on fire? Yikes.

Want to travel farther than 250 miles? You'd better plan your route to find chargers, and forget about getting lost on a road trip (or running from the man).

I remember, very clearly, when plastic bags, at the grocery, were deemed the greatest thing happening, and you looked like a dick if you wanted a paper bag (you're killing the trees!!). Now, someone has remembered that trees grow back and they are the preferable option over plastic...

We live in a very interesting time to see some attempted changes like this. While I find things that Tesla does interesting, it's amazing to see Elon say "Yup, 600 miles on a charge and 250 mph" without building one, and a lot of people eat it up. I think he's doing some neat stuff for a lot of industries but he's also somewhat of a scam artist.

I think more than anything my comments here boil down to if I have the ability to I'm going to hang on to a few combustion engines. I've seen humanity live to regret too many things in the name of the environment to go full tilt into this sort of thing.

aighead said:

I'm going to be a kook and say that while, yes we careen towards an electric vehicle future, we'll inevitably find our way back to combustion engines.

Click to expand...

Oh I never said an electric future is fully sustainable, but I also don't see us going back to combustion engines, either.

We've got about a hundred years (or less, in some cases) before the mineral elements that we depend on for technology run out. Our grandkids may see the day when we can't do MRIs anymore because we can't make liquid helium to cool the machinery. Lithium? That'll run out, too, at least unless enough people realize how dirty it really is to mine lithium. Cripes, we're even running out of materials to make good concrete.

I'll give us two hundred years before we're living in huts again.