[fatgas]

Originally Posted by whynot

I know I keep harping on about this ... but technology doesn't travel in a liner and progressive manner. It has fits and starts. Sometimes even complete u-turns.

Take some flops, like,

Theranos (blood testing)
Google Glass
3D TV
Microsoft Kin
Apple Lisa
Apple Newton
Segway

Yet, there is little doubt that in the longer term, blood testing will be central to the health system. And they seem to be able to draw less blood yet understand more about the inner workings of the body.

Google Glass lost the PR battle, but VR headsets seem to be a thing.

Apple Newton was a complete flop at the time. But the core idea has morphed (over a few decades) into the iPhone.

As for EV ... it seems to have hit one of those inflection points that suggests that the market for EV is saturated, for now.

Yet, look at the technology progress happening on a number of fronts. Petrol engines, diesel engines, hybrid technologies, battery technologies, hydrogen economy, etc, etc.

All manufacturers are vying for your dollars for your personal mobility needs (aka cars). Instead of just ICS, there is now EV, and potentially hydrogen down the track. All of this tension and competition between technologies, ideas, and cost, will in the medium term push along the development of better automobiles. Sure, there will be winners and losers. But that is how our democratic capitalistic society makes progress.

There is a difference between the tech you listed and the current push towards EV's. There was no agenda behind the demise (or the success) of those products, the people pushing EV's and demonising ICE vehicles aren't doing so from a position of altruism or for the greater good.