You Have to Wonder

I just read an article at Gizmag about a fiberglass automobile starting into production in India that runs on compressed air, is zero polluting, has a driving rang of ten hours, and a top speed of 68 mph.

The car comes with a slew of frills, including a GPS guidance system, needs an oil change (1 liter of vegetable oil) only about every 31,000 miles, and can be "refueled" at your home in 3 to 4 hours at night while you are sleeping. (Read all about it here.)

It ain't real pretty, but don't worry about that. I've lived too long to know the damned thing makes far too much sense for us to ever see one.

We're Americans! It's our responsibility to wallow in aggressive stupidity.

We need huge-engine cars that will go zero to 60 in 1.1 seconds (just watch the ads) and terrorize the community so we can wait, engines revving, at the next stoplight. And despite the fact very few of us drive more than 15 miles a day, we need cars that will go hundreds of miles before we stop to bend over and spreading our cheeks at the gas pump.

If we really wanted to do anything to save the planet, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, or act like we had half a brain, we'd all be driving golf carts back and forth to the store. (Instead, we made that illegal.)

As a result, every time I read about a new and practical alternative to gas-guzzling super monsters designed for ripping up the surrounding environment (how many SUV owners have ever taken their vehicles out of town, let alone off-road?) I've learned this is the stuff of Flash Gordon and inter-galactic space travel.

We'll see time machines before we ever allow an intelligent substitute for the internal-combustion engine on our roads.