wasoxygen

That's not just an electric cars problem though. BMW subscription model seat warmers, John Deere's proprietary electrical subsystems, and right to repair and software issues with smartphones come to mind.

I'm talking about something way more radical. We can install 20 gazillion solar panels and batteries, get an asteroid, whatever, sure, but focusing solely on improving efficiency in the renewables sector avoids a yuge slice of the problem.

Ultimately, I think we need to curb energy consumption, and I'll make the case that it can be baked in to generally positive lifestyle improvements. We should have a different model that we can apply to city-specific and country-specific conditions, but what follows is for U.S. cities. I've no idea about Africa, South America, or the Middle East, for starters.

If we were capable of collective action, whether through the free market or otherwise, we'd realize that if less than 50% of all cars are in use even during peak demand, we could all "buy" about half as many cars, and spend the money we saved on other things. "Buy" in quotes b/c it'd then be a (private non-monopolistic) service(s) that'd cost ~50% (probably ~60%, more realistically) as much as monthly car payments, on average. There could be subscription tiers, but on average, it'd be maybe a little less or equal to the cost people typically spend on maintenance of their paid-off cars, but for a better car, and no maintenance inconveniences.

The cars could be stored and recharged in centralized and/or smaller, quasi-centralized garages with more efficiency, and people could convert their house garages to another room. Home value goes up. It would also radically diminish the amount of area devoted to parking lots adjacent to businesses and apartments. A way to increase population density.

Population density goes up, including business density, along with restructuring, specifically targeting green space, all creating less demand for automobiles. Downtown and University of Bern are five minutes' walk from the station of a one-hour 160mph bullet train to inside of the Zurich airport terminal, halfway across the country (OK, it's a small country). European cities were built before automobile demands existed. They are superior places to live for it.

To be fair, implementing and optimizing a self-driving carpool system algorithmically, especially if you're trying to incorporate public transportation and carpooling, sounds like the most NP problem I've ever heard of, and it could lead to e.g. you getting screwed on a random Tuesday morning commute that's three times as long as the usual when you have an important AM meeting that day.

It does kinda hinge on self-driving tech being fleshed out, obviously. Humans are expensive, but should be. And if EV batteries aren't at houses, you'd need to have another battery module built. Sounds bad, but there are some benefits to not needing to design a battery to travel 80+ mph on the underside of a car. You're still not too much higher than the same number of batteries anyway, because there exist only half as many cars. Apartments have bigger and probably more efficient batteries.

Even besides somehow wrestling policy-making away from the oil & gas companies, there's a LOT of other problems with this idea, honestly, but it's fun to try to think what's possible thirty or forty years from now. Like: you're putting anyone who drives anything out of a job, :(, and almost assuredly nowhere near enough battery/solar maintenance tech jobs to make up for it.

Simply switching oil combustion schemes to electric, and only using a battery/solar scheme will probably eventually run into some kind of diminishing returns. Curb demand regardless, and enrich our lives in the process. ASAP.

inb4 the idea that using a government in tandem with private industry to this specific end is somehow insultingly socialist (code for: "cost the always-sacrificing, always-suffering, increasingly-wealthy class too much money, and btw get the fuck back to work").

Tear my arguments apart, any and everyone. Have fun.