Embrace Change And It Will Embrace You!
Imagine a day when you could leave your front door and be assured that you will know exactly when you will reach your destination. During this journey you would never sit in traffic, never get caught speeding, never get into an accident, never run over a child or an old lady. You could watch a movie, take a nap, get some work done whilst being fully wired into the interwebs, play cards, read a book, or just chat on the phone or with fellow passengers.
How unstressed would you be on arrival? Ready for that mega meeting, ready to face the inlaws, ready to jump straight into the party without having that ‘get me a fucking drink now’ moment.
Fear not, this is coming, it’s not dream, and damnit I hope it comes sooner rather than later!
BUT, even as much as this is exactly what we all want, society will push against it, and hard, at first, then slowly come to realise, that just like everything else, change is for the better. How many friends do you know are still walking around with Nokias, holding onto the ‘I need the feel of keys to type properly’ bullshit? Very few I am sure. How many people are pulling carts with horses? How many people don’t have a TV? How many people don’t use email? Nope, even most of our Grannies are probably wired up!
So what am I banging on about?
Well, I believe that the change that is coming, is going to have the biggest push back ever seen by a new technology, and that’s because this change is double barrelled!
Some people will argue vehemently that what is coming will be impinging on their freedom, that they don’t need it, it’s silly, and that it just ‘wouldn’t be the same.’
The first loaded barrel of this change shotgun is ……
The Electric Car.
Gasp, horror, snicker.
My goodness, just utter those three words at your next cocktail party, family gathering, or dinner with your wife, and gauge the guffawed responses.
“Ha, it will never work, ha no chance.”
“They can’t go far enough and are too slow.”
“Meh, forget it, I don’t want to get stuck on a highway somewhere because the battery ran out on me!”
All the above stock answers (burning fears) are the typical knee jerk reactions from the masses who have neither seen an electric car, let alone drive one.
“Won’t work, just won’t work, how can I even charge it?”
Er, well how do you charge your phone? Yes, you plug it in, it’s not a new concept.
Do you ever leave the house without knowing that you have enough charge on your smart device of choice to get you through your impending journey? NO, of course you don’t! And even if you did run out of charge whilst on the move I bet you find a way to recharge pretty quickly. It’s the same with cars, you wouldn’t leave for a 150 mile journey knowing you only had 50 miles of charge, and even if you did start to run low you would be alerted and directed to the nearest charging station, pull over and charge in the time it would take you to fill up with petrol, buy a coffee and take a leak.
Then at journey’s end just charge up at your friends, office or parking space upon arrival.
Unbeknownst to these naysayers is the fact that leading electric car manufacturer Tesla motors have pushed one full charge of a battery to 265 miles.
TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE MILES!
How many supermarket and school runs does that get you?
In fact, who on earth drives a saloon car that far day to day? Very few. You would be hard pushed to find people who drive this far in a week.
And this is just the start, they are working on battery technology at a much more advanced level than most in the industry, so the range will only get further!
And yes -
It goes fast, very fast, corners on rails, is all wheel drive, has more traction in snow than most ‘all terrain’ SUV’s and is the ‘safest car ever tested’, as stated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Luckily, for all of human kind, Tesla, a brand new company in relative terms to it’s competitors has started a domino effect. The bigger names in the game have been forced to start producing an electric model into their range. Applaud Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, Fiat, Kia, BMW and Chevrolet to name but a few who are following Teslas lead and are offering fully electric car models.
So with the first barrel unloaded, what bullet of change is left in the second?
Well, it’s something so alien and unbelievable to most that it’s just shirked off as just plain ridiculous speculation. And anyway, who dare infringe on the rights of society in this manner?
Yes, we are now talking about the SELF DRIVING CAR!
Oh man, I bet you are shaking with anger now.
But guess what, i’m not finished…… it will be an ELECTRIC SELF DRIVING CAR!
Boom
Boom
There’s both barrels unloaded.
Can’t happen right?
No way would you let a car drive itself, no way in the world, you are a better driver than most of the other drivers on the road as it is, so why do you need to let a machine take over?
Well what if this machine knew exactly what was 100 miles ahead of it, behind it, to the side of it, in fact where everything was placed in every one of it’s 360 degree radius? What if this machine knew instantly that the car in front just applied the brakes at such a pressure to perform an emergency stop? What if this machine knows that a motorbike is screaming up behind you and is currently in your blind spot? What if this machine was connected to, and receiving information from every other machine on the road, be it moving or parked. Basically it would be ALL knowing, something humans can never be, and being all knowing it can act accordingly, always.
It will know when the traffic lights are going to change and can adapt speed safely and accordingly to optimise forward momentum. It will know where roadworks are taking place and calculate the absolute quickest route to take, or the most scenic, where the best burger or sushi place is as rated on trip advisor or your preferred social network. It will play your favourite music, find you news on your favourite sports team, stream you information on the stock market, remind you of appointments, alert you of sales at your favourite store, tell you the EXACT weather, anywhere! How? Because it’s communicating with cars 5, 10, 50, 80, 100, 300, 550 miles away, that are driving or parked in wet, windy or fine conditions. Yes, our cars will tell us exactly what we need to know and when!
Who am I to tell you this?
No one, precisely no one.
I am not a futurist, nor scientist, or noted visionary, I have no voice, I have no PHD’s to my name, in fact barely an A level.
I am just a regular guy.
More importantly, it’s who I am not.
I don’t work for any of the above named companies, in fact (out of choice) I work for nobody right now. I am not a journalist with incredibly tight deadlines and an over empowering alpha male stereotypical boss. I am not a stock analyst grasping at straws to get a good story out there to enlisted investors to a weekly letter on the EV market. I am not an activist investor trying to ramp the price of any particular company mentioned, although if you want full disclosure, I am a Tesla share holder.
I’m not trying to preach, i’m just saying what I feel.
In short, I am just a guy who needed to get a rant off his chest and hope that at least a few people read this and resonate with it.
Embrace change, and it will embrace you.