[hasmanean]

We should not replace ICE cars with EVs, but something smaller. Steam engines were large because that was how they got efficiency up. ICE cars could afford to be smaller and more efficient. If they had just replaced steam locmotives with diesel ones that would have been stupid...instead they built a whole new infrastructure around smaller cars that was much better than the rail network and redesigned our entire cities. Existing cars are the optimal configuration for a given engine cost and gas price.

Electric motors are even more efficient, but using them in the form factor of a car is also stupid. With robotics we can now make tiny self-driving vehicles that can do chores for us. Why should I drive a 2-ton car to the store to pick up a gallon of milk, when the store can send a small robot to deliver it to me? Similarly a large empty bus can be replaced with smaller ATV sized EVs that drive me from my house to the main artery and merge to form one train. That reduces the size of the EV engine and battery pack by 10x. Some of the problems to be solved are not merely technological but organizational and cultural.

[vfclists]

Why should the store send a small robot to deliver it you?

You can ride a bicycle to the store to pick it up. Just think of the cardiovascular benefits.

And you know what? Think of the energy cost of the robot's manufacture, and the energy the delivery takes.

[decafninja]

Because rain, snow, heat, lack of fitness, security, amongst other reasons.

Cycling is my most common mode of transportation these days. I love it. But I also know it's not going to be practical primary means of transport for a huge slice of the population. And the "danger from cars" ranks pretty low in my list of reasons.

[hasmanean]

A bike cannot compete in terms of energy efficiency with a slow robot that delivers multiple packages to people along a route.

Human food is the most expensive fuel on the planet when you factor in agriculture.