Industry Prospectus
At the outset of the independent automotive industry, the entrepreneurs (several thousand) coordinated and gained support from governmental and other enablers to establish infrastructure, mechanisms and laws conducive to growth of the industry, the only one in the field of transportation that has never required subsidies. America also took this approach to develop railroads, communications, electrical power and the like so as to create an economy and living standards far more vibrant than other countries. In about 1960 encroachers were allowed into the industry to participate in aspects that many felt were neglected, e. g. safety, environment and fuel conservation.
Only as I was completing the manuscript and after reliving much of the related agita, did I recognize several distressing phenomena:
We hope this book will help square up Americans on alternatives available to the industry and energize them to participate in developing a new system. They will help establish features for these after considering trade-offs and discarding “touchy-feely or titillating offerings. Most importantly, they will insist on an organization that contains no duchies that are most concerned with their influence, their politics and their budgets.
Perhaps we might even be able to think “outside the box” in developing a system obsolescing the internal combustion engine that has dominated the passenger segment for over one hundred years.
Without even “rigging” the system, it will probably be possible to put American manufacturers back on even footing with imports in creating vehicles compatible with our vast expanses and the commodiousness that Americans covet.
At the outset of the independent automotive industry, the entrepreneurs (several thousand) coordinated and gained support from governmental and other enablers to establish infrastructure, mechanisms and laws conducive to growth of the industry, the only one in the field of transportation that has never required subsidies. America also took this approach to develop railroads, communications, electrical power and the like so as to create an economy and living standards far more vibrant than other countries. In about 1960 encroachers were allowed into the industry to participate in aspects that many felt were neglected, e. g. safety, environment and fuel conservation.
Only as I was completing the manuscript and after reliving much of the related agita, did I recognize several distressing phenomena:
- that we had spent enormous sums and precious time establishing duchies and fixed protocols in arguing and implementing how we could make driving safer by mitigating crashes; instead, we should have been spending such resources to eliminate crashes, particularly since we should have been able to forecast the vast improvement in sensors and the ability to transmit huge amounts of information in small packages.
- similarly, that we should have been developing a new propulsion system rather than try to focus on a knowingly obsolete fuel from the standpoint of environment, availability and world politics. Compounded by local modifications such as the California “zero emissions” mandate, I recall a panel of chief engineers lamenting that they learned nothing from the billions of dollars expended on that California experiment (that was later cancelled) and could not alone introduce new propulsion system because any misstep would bankrupt the company. (They went bankrupt anyway.) We need collaboration as utilized in the “exceptionalizing” of the USA!
We hope this book will help square up Americans on alternatives available to the industry and energize them to participate in developing a new system. They will help establish features for these after considering trade-offs and discarding “touchy-feely or titillating offerings. Most importantly, they will insist on an organization that contains no duchies that are most concerned with their influence, their politics and their budgets.
Perhaps we might even be able to think “outside the box” in developing a system obsolescing the internal combustion engine that has dominated the passenger segment for over one hundred years.
Without even “rigging” the system, it will probably be possible to put American manufacturers back on even footing with imports in creating vehicles compatible with our vast expanses and the commodiousness that Americans covet.