I’m not charged up yet for electric cars
REMEMBER videos?
Explain to anyone born this century that we used to get in the car and drive to shops that were devoted exclusively to bulky, booksized cassettes.
(You might have to explain what those are too).
They probably won’t believe that this was what we thought of back then as “on-demand” entertainment.
A few years later my video shop made the shock move of devoting one shelf to a new technology, DVDS, and I remember thinking, “As if I’d ever get rid of my video collection?”
But the next video player I bought had a DVD player as well so I got a few DVDS, then the next player I bought had no video player, so out went the videos.
I’d built up a sizeable DVD collection when I heard about “streaming” – and I remember thinking, “Oh, no, I’m happy with DVDS, I don’t think I’ll ever go down that road.”
Famous last words – cue to
2020 and the realisation that I haven’t played a DVD for a few years now, there’s no need.
I stream everything, and while the DVDS gather dust, I’m not even sure my old player still works.
You could track the same kind of progression with the old dial-up telephone, how quickly did we progress to push-button, to portable, to the first bulky mobiles, to the virtual computers we now carry in our pockets?
Whether you are an early adopter looking forward to the newest development or prefer to wait until whatever you have doesn’t work anymore – we move with technology and when you stop to look back, it’s almost
shocking to see the rapid evolution of everyday items.
Smart appliances, robot vacuums, baby monitors, security systems, weather stations, wireless ear pods – we adopt, and adapt.
But what about our cars?
You might have seen two pretty big announcements this week.
Firstly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought forward the date when sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in the UK, from 2040 to 2030.
I mean, that’s the UK, distances aren’t that big an issue – but when General Motors in the US
announced that it was going all electric from 2022, this was pretty huge news. It is going to be releasing 30 models in the next four years, including Cadillacs, pick-up trucks and an electric Hummer that can do zero to 100km/h in three seconds.
Also, to avoid having to adapt batteries from third-party manufacturers, it is building a plant to make its own.
Locally, mowers and whipper snippers are shifting to battery power, and while electric buses have been rolled out in most Aussie capital cities, the logistics of
charging stations at home and on the road for cars still seems futuristic for the regions.
Industry, however, forges ahead, with the Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) signing off on a deal to supply nickel products to battery maker Samsung.
But as far as my car goes, I’m still at the “I’m happy with video” stage.
At least when electric cars do become the norm, we should be thankful that unlike power tools, batteries will definitely be included.