The future of cars

I saw this fascinating documentary on Fresh Creation about the auto industry and specifically why people are not driving far more fuel efficient cars. It's a 48 minute programme but well worth finding time to watch.
It reveals how 35 years ago, Shell and General Motors adapted a standard production car to be capable of 159km on 1l of gasoline, up to 20 times more efficient than some of the most popular vehicles being sold in the US today. A combination of self serving oil companies and short-termist auto makers have done everything they can to bury any progress in this area, apart from token gestures designed for PR pieces.
There is extended segments with a big cheese at Opel (GM) who succeeds in looking totally out of date and untrustworthy, especialy in comparison to many of the other individuals in the programme who talk with such authentic passion.
An analyst for The Economist predicts that the future of the automobile could very well lie in Silicon Valley with the tech companies, rather than with the existing auto companies. This, he argues, is because the critical factors to success are about how to harness new technologies - batteries, power management, software - which are not the core competencies of Ford, Chrysler, GM, et al. Add to this the crippling debt and tiny market cap of those companies compared to many of the technology companies and it's not a difficult scenario to imagine.

It also reveals a laughable perspective on how Toyota came to lead the way with alternative fuel technology and the Prius.

Finally, it profiles a small independent company, Telsa Motors who are making gorgeous, high performance electric vehicles.

Watch the programme, it'll make you think.