NOT SO FAST!

 A letter send to Motor Trend magazine, which has gone orgasmic on electric and self-driving vehicles.

It seems MT needs to think more and parrot less about electric vehicles and self-driving cars. Consider just a few factors –

- Lithium requires the mining of 500 tons just to produce one ton of Lithium. While there are hundreds of millions of tons of it worldwide, a lot of it is in socialist or communist nations – not too smart to become overly dependent on unreliable sources like we did in the past with oil as opposed to the vast reserves of fossil fuels in our own country. Explore, develop, innovate - but at a measured pace not a frantic rush.
- China controls over 2/3 of the battery process. Enough said.
- Battery disposal is a nightmare. There are laws against plastic bags whose environmental impact would be dwarfed by far fewer than many millions of batteries.
- There is no proof changing all cars to electricity will actually help the planet – man overestimates his ability to help or harm the planet. Electricity other than hydroelectric and nuclear uses fossil fuels anyway. We all have carbon in our bodies – it is curious that so many who are championing radical environmentalism are also for depopulating the earth. Sounds like Stalin, Hitler, Mao and others to me.
- The power grid is already in trouble and less reliable in some areas than it should be. Power outages are common. That means you would be stranded either at home or hundreds of miles away. Perhaps fleets of work trucks with frunks are great candidates, but not vehicles of people whose schedules are fluid and change quickly.
- People are moving more and more to apartments where charging is not available nor easy to provide.

- I cannot get Microsoft or Apple to get spellcheck to work reliably. The number of decisions and judgment calls in driving are far more complex and puts the ability to avoid accidents strictly in the hands of others. Many sound evasive maneuvers are counter-intuitive. Road conditions change constantly. People trump machines.
- Automobile electric systems have been hacked and surely kidnappings with no recourse will happen with such attractive and defenseless targets. The same with trucks with expensive cargoes – they can be driven by faceless criminals to remote places to steal the cargo. Women would be at huge risk. Criminals adopt quicker than manufacturers.
- It puts your travel decisions totally in control of private or government bureaucracies. If they ban church, they can shut you down. If they do not like your politics, they can keep you from driving to the polls. If they do not want you to drive to Texas - need I say more?
- There is a reason why leftists hate the car. Cars = freedom. If you can control where people go and when, there is no freedom. Therefore, the move to CONTROL the car.
- The power grid is already in trouble and less reliable in some areas than it should be. Power outages are common. That means you would be stranded either at some or hundreds of miles away. It takes far too many decisions out of the drivers’ hands.
- It takes the JOY out of driving. MT likes to talk about FUN TO DRIVE. Are you really giving that up so easily to jump on the 1984-inspired PC bandwagon?