The United States of Cars

Times Online today has sort of a fun little op-ed on How Detroit Can Save Itself that caught my eye. And they were all good ideas for reducing the carbon emissions of a given trip and making driving cars more attractive. But the problem is that "Detroit" cannot unilaterally take advantage of most of them to improve itself vis a vis competition.

"Dedicated short range communication" and smart cars only works if everyone has one and they all speak the same language. Imagine you are driving and your car is a pc and you are heading into a blind curve with a mac coming the other way. Same with the highway convoy. And just imagine if a 15 car train is heading down 95 on New Years eve 2012 and the software has been written by the microsoft zune team.

The solar powered car runs into a chicken and egg problem with our current power grid - it doesn't make sense to make them until a lot of people have solar garages, and people have little incentive to get a solar garage if they do not have somewhere to park all their power. Plus I am not sure we really want GM in the solar panel business.

The last one has a chance. Some network to tell you where open spaces are relies on the local government to put in smart meters and traffic cams. But the latter piece about turning your car into a little personalized ad bar as a new revenue stream works (though like I really need more ads or restaurant services - that is what an iphone or bb is for).

And again, with all of these they do not help "Detroit", they just help car owners and perpetuate our car dependency by sucking up chunks of public resources and crowding out public transit options.