Elon Musk predicts that in 20 years new cars will no longer include a steering wheel.

Courtesy of Axios:

Elon Musk predicted that within 10 years nearly all new cars made in the U.S. will be autonomous, and half of those will be fully electric vehicles. "China is probably going to be ahead of that," the Tesla and SpaceX chief said Saturday, speaking at the National Governors Association meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Within 20 years, he said driving a car will be like having a horse (i.e. rare and totally optional). "There will not be a steering wheel."

This piggybacks well with my post from yesterday morning that predicted that all new cars in Europe will be electric by the year 2035.

I know a lot of you poo poo'd that prediction so I imagine this one will also receive some blowback from the those who fear and mistrust change as well.

But whether you like it or not the future is one where cars run on batteries and people are merely the passengers.

Remember, there was a time not so very long ago when research required a trip to the library, phones were attached to the wall, and computers took up several rooms of space.

We cannot imagine having to live without the conveniences we now take for granted, and soon the same will be true for manual driving.

Musk also had this to say about the future of energy: 

Musk noted that it would only take about 100 square miles of solar panels to power the entire United States and the batteries needed to store the energy would only need to take about a square mile. That said, he imagines the energy shifting to a large dose of rooftop solar, some power plant solar, along with wind, hydro and nuclear power. 

"It's inevitable," Musk said, speaking of shifting to sustainable energy. "But it matters if it happens sooner or later."

Personally I am very excited about the future. Well at least the future of technology.

I am still not at all confident that human beings are evolving as quickly as out technical advances. 

Dutch bank predicts that by 2035 the only new cars available in Europe will be electric.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

All new cars sold in Europe will be electric within less than two decades, driven by government support, falling battery costs and economies of scale, a Dutch bank has predicted. 

However, ING warned that with battery-powered vehicles accounting for 100% of registrations in 2035 across the continent, European carmakers would lose out to their rivals in the US and Asia who already lead on battery production. 

The forecast is much more aggressive than most other projections, such as the UK’s National Grid which on Thursday said it expects 90% of new cars in Britain to be electric by 2050. 

France’s commitment last week to banning new petrol and diesel car sales by 2040 suggests it also thinks the roll-out of electric vehicles will be slower than ING’s report expects. 

However, the bank said that it believed pure electric cars would “become the rational choice for motorists in Europe” sometime between 2017 and 2024.

Well whichever of these is the most accurate they all seem to agree that gasoline powered vehicles are about to go extinct, and that electric cars are the wave of the future.

Now if only America can emerge from under the influence of big oil and start working toward a similarly progressive policy.

"Fossil fuels have lost. The rest of the world just doesn’t know it yet."

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

The details of this transition are spelled out in a new, must-read, 4000-word article in the Financial Times, “The Big Green Bang: how renewable energy became unstoppable.” 

What is most remarkable about the article is that it appears in the Financial Times. The free-market oriented paper is the “most important business read” for the world’s top financial decision makers and “the most credible publication in reporting financial and economic issues” for global professional investors, according to surveys.

Electric cars that were hard to even buy eight years ago are selling at an exponential rate,” explains FT’s environment correspondent Pilita Clark, “in the process driving down the price of batteries that hold the key to unleashing new levels of green growth.” 

Indeed, one key reason the clean energy revolution is unstoppable is the dramatic and ongoing improvements in battery cost and performance. Advanced batteries are game-changing not only for the electrification of transportation, but also for the continued rapid penetration of renewables.

Just another reminder that though it appears at times that we are in the craziest of times politically, we are also witnessing the dawning of a new age technologically. 

And in fact it is this very technology that will undercut the funding from fossil fuel companies that traditionally favor conservatives, and even remove the main reason for meddling in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries to gain access to their oil supplies.

Despite what Donald Trump has promised coal is not going to see a resurgence, and it will be President Obama's investment in renewable energy that will see us to a brighter, and less polluted, tomorrow.

We are slowly moving towards cars that run on green energy but the Netherlands is tired of waiting.

Courtesy of Quartz: 

Gasoline-powered cars may soon be a thing of the past. But the Netherlands wants to get there quicker. 

The Dutch government is debating the possibility of banning new gas and diesel cars from 2025. The initial proposal, which was brought forward by the Labor Party, called for an outright ban of all petrol and diesel cars, but was eventually modified so the ban only affected the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Traditional cars already in use will still run on the streets. 

The proposal has since passed in the lower house of the Netherlands’ parliament. It now needs to pass through the Dutch senate. 

The Netherlands already has one of the lowest levels of CO2 emissions from new cars in the European Union. The country has seen a recent surge in electric car sales, which reached an all-time high last December.

Just a reminder to Americans that in many cases we are falling far behind the times.

I love stories like this which talk about our future. It just gives me such hope.

Since this is a political blog it should be noted that our current President has done a great deal to push toward clean energy in this country.

And it should be noted that Hillary Clinton has promised to do even more.

Yes, the future is looking bright indeed.

Car dealer associations across the country are lobbying hard to keep Tesla Motors from establishing dealerships. The answer as to why this is the case is one that we know all too well. Oil.

Courtesy of Wired:  

Car dealers fear Tesla. In states across the country, powerful car dealer associations have lobbied to ensure the electric car maker and its direct-sales model are kept out. This movement claimed another victory this week when New Jersey banned Tesla stores in the state. 

On the surface, the fear is hard to fathom. In New Jersey, for instance, sales of Tesla’s $70,000 Model S reportedly number in the hundreds. But if you dig a little deeper, it becomes obvious why dealers are worried. They don’t just fear Tesla’s cars. They fear Tesla’s plan to create a world where you never have to bring your car into the shop again. 

The first and most striking way Tesla kills the dealer service department cash cow is downloads. As part of its sales pitch, Tesla says you should think of its Model S sedan as “an app on four wheels.” That may sound like vacuous Silicon Valley marketing copy, but the company isn’t just being metaphorical. Software is at the heart of what keeps Teslas running. These internet-connected cars are designed to self-diagnose their problems. The vehicles can also download software fixes or updates — even new features — much like an iPhone when Apple puts out a new version of iOS. When fixes happen over the air, there’s no need for a shop in the first place. 

The ability to repair a car via software is especially important when the vehicle itself consists of so much new technology that traditional mechanics don’t know how to fix. The flip side is that without an internal combustion engine, there’s not as much to fix. I’ve written before that a Tesla without its outer shell looks like a cell phone on wheels. It’s basically just a big battery. That means no spark plugs, no air filters, no fuel pumps, no timing belts. In short, Teslas don’t have any of the parts that force you to take your car in for “regularly scheduled maintenance” — services that can cost dearly at the dealer. But it’s hard to charge for an oil change when there’s no oil to be changed.

As you can imagine a vehicle that requires no gasoline and no oil changes, would drive the oil companies into  a near panic.

And so it has. Enough so that it has a long history of working against the electric car industry.

I think there is little doubt that this is the wave of the future, and speaking just for myself, the idea of a car that can self diagnose and solve problems via the internet is incredibly attractive.

However, and I almost hate to bring this up, before this country puts all of its eggs in the electric car basket, we need to completely overhaul our electrical grid, beef up security, and move to more solar power to meet our energy needs.

Right now we are incredible vulnerable to sabotage, and before we dispense with fossil fuel powered cars altogether that must be addressed.

However in the meantime I am looking forward to helping my daughter purchase a car that will NOT leak oil all over my driveway, and one which I can plug into the wall to charge rather than to stand in the freezing cold at a gas station spending money to support oil producing countries in the Middle East.

Interesting subtext in this Nissan Leaf commercial

For me this just about sums up the difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party.

The GOP is all about hanging onto the past, regardless of how poisonous and primitive it might, for fear of what the future might signify to them and their beliefs.

While the Democrats, or progressives if you prefer, plunge headlong into the future, joyously anticipating the potential wonders that await them around every corner.

Yes I realize that is terribly simplistic, but it does have a certain poetic reality to it , don't you think?