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[furryfairy]

Veeeeerrrrry eeeentaresting TEDtalk by a guy named Shai Agassi, who has started a new kind of electric car company called Better Place

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I'm not 100% sold on the idea yet, but I gotta admit it all sounds good on paper, and it might just solve the problems acting as barriers to wider adoption of pure-electric cars

Comments

[tehuti]

This is an interesting way of trying to solve the battery-life problem that has stalled the electric car for what must be decades at this point. And this also helps get around the problem of the physical longevity of a battery. If the consumer doesn't have to bear the cost of replacing a "burned out" battery, I think that will greatly enhance the appeal of electric cars.

A car company that sells miles like cellphone companies sell minutes is a cute catchphrase, but can you imagine a cellphone company with a geographic monopoly who has the power to make your car stop working if there's a problem with your account? Does that sound horrifying to anyone else?

I don't see this the same way. The way our system works now, the oil companies are the ones that possess the power to make our cars stop working, if we can't afford to buy gas from them. And I imagine that if this idea works, and lots of electric cars go on the road, competition will spring up FAST. I imagine that many if not all of the currently existing oil and gasoline companies would at least attempt to serve an emerging market for electric cars in a similar fashion.