Category Archives: Automobiles

Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?

Posted on January 1, 2025 by

Preface. Who cares about electric cars? Civilization ends when trucks stop running. Trucks can’t run on batteries because they’re too heavy, with 63 times less energy density than diesel. If all U.S. transportation were to be electrified, the existing electric … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Critical Thinking, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Electrification, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?

Self-driving cars in San Francisco cause accidents, congestion, and more

Posted on May 17, 2024 by

Cruise robotaxi crashes into firetruck in San Francisco Two companies operate self driving taxis in San Francisco: Waymo and Cruise.  Over 92 problems were reported in 2023, which led to Cruise being suspended, in part due to footage of a … Continue reading →

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Implications of Refinery closures for Homeland Security & critical infrastructure safety

Posted on March 24, 2022 by

Preface. The talk of electric vehicles saving the world from greenhouse gases is nonsense, a red herring to distract everyone from what’s really at stake, and from the material requirements to build EV with rare earth and other scarce minerals … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Oil & Gas, Peak Oil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals

Posted on February 3, 2021 by

An electric car uses five times as many minerals as a conventional car (IEA 2020): IEA, Minerals used in selected power generation technologies, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used-in-selected-power-generation-technologies There are 17 rare earth elements (REE) that China controls up to 97% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Metals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A billion new autos by 2030 will kill climate change

Posted on July 27, 2020 by

Preface. The article below argues that electric cars aren’t going to replace gas and diesel vehicles enough to lessen greenhouse emissions. The average electric vehicle requires 30 kilowatt-hours to travel 100 miles — the same amount of electricity an average … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Climate Change | 13 Comments

Nuclear powered airplanes, cars, and tanks

Posted on July 3, 2020 by

Preface. If trucks, tractors, ships, locomotives, and airplanes can’t run on electricity or the electric grid stay up without natural gas to balance wind & solar (see When Trucks Stop Running), if cement and steel and other products requiring the … Continue reading →

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Far Out, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Life before Cars: When Pedestrians Ruled the Streets

Posted on May 31, 2020 by

Preface.  The past is future after fossil fuels, but minus the horses for a while, since before cars they required about a sixth of U.S. farmland for their feed.  My grandfather, Francis J. Pettijohn, used to fondly reminisce about how … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Transportation What To Do | Tagged | 1 Comment

MIT: Why the electric-car revolution may take a lot longer than expected

Posted on February 22, 2020 by

Preface. This study from MIT explains why price parity of electric and gasoline vehicles is likely to take a lot longer than 5 years, and perhaps never if cars continue to depend on lithium-ion batteries. Deeper cost declines beyond 2030 … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Lithium-ion | Tagged | 5 Comments

Why self-driving cars may not be in your future

Posted on January 8, 2020 by

Preface. Below are excerpts from several articles about why a completely automated vehicle is unlikely.  Heaven forbid they are invented. Researchers have found that people will drive 76% more miles, stop using bicycles and mass transit, waste a considerable amount … Continue reading →

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How Much Oil is in an Electric Vehicle? by Nicholas LePan

Posted on September 28, 2019 by

LePan shows how plastics, made from fossil fuels, make up so much of a car, plus lighten the weight so the car can go further on gasoline. Since fossil fuels are finite, many assume we’ll just make them out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments