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This wouldn't surprise me, although manufacturing lithium batteries is still a bit complex. The railroads already use all-electric drivetrains; short-range loco

This wouldn't surprise me, although manufacturing lithium batteries is still a bit complex. The railroads already use all-electric drivetrains; short-range locomotives carry batteries only, while long-haul ones use diesel to generate electricity and power the drivetrain. The big advantage of an electric drivetrain is regenerative braking, which is just as useful in cars (think of the Prius and its remarkable mileage) as in trains. Over the medium term, I'd expect to see a car market that looks a bit like the train market: all-electric cars for city driving, plus hybrids for traveling in the country or in underdeveloped areas. Fossil fuels will probably never go away entirely (certainly the military will always need them), but oil is good for things other than fuel; 100 years from now, I expect electric cars will be the usual option while gasoline-burning hybrids are an expensive curiosity. (Or we might move to a mix of electricity and hydrogen fuel cells; Toyota's betting on this, since natural-gas refining releases waste hydrogen. Safe containment of hydrogen is harder than safe containment of gasoline, though...)

monk_e_boy 9y ago
We still have the occasional steam powered traction engine go past our house. We live on a very steep hill, so there is a lot of stoking to get up pressure before they attempt it. I'd say we see them 2 or 3 times a year. Really cool beasts.
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  I'd love to see a video of that
  - monk_e_boy 9y ago
    I never thought to video them. There are rallies every year in our local town where 20 or so get together and drive around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbs5BfpbAH4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbs5BfpbAH4 My father-in-law is a conductor on a local steam engine. My SO got to drive it -- the lucky lady :)
    - monk_e_boy 9y ago
      http://prestonservices.co.uk/category/steam-engines/road-steam/traction-engines/road-locomotives/ http://prestonservices.co.uk/category/steam-engines/road-ste...
- clock_tower 9y ago
  That's something else! And yet I'm not surprised; all sorts of things turn out to have valuable niche uses despite being superseded in the mainstream. Now I'm wondering if the future might hold robot-driven sailing ships (wind and solar are renewable, and ocean shipping isn't exactly about speed) -- and I'm certainly not betting on internal-combustion engines going away for good.
cr0sh 9y ago
> Or we might move to a mix of electricity and hydrogen fuel cells; Toyota's betting on this, since natural-gas refining releases waste hydrogen. Safe containment of hydrogen is harder than safe containment of gasoline, though... It is possible to do a gasoline fuel cell: https://news.wsu.edu/2014/06/16/wsu-researchers-develop-fuel-cells-for-increased-airplane-efficiency/ https://news.wsu.edu/2014/06/16/wsu-researchers-develop-fuel... https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jinsoo_Kim8/publication/263700298_Gasoline-fueled_solid_oxide_fuel_cell_with_high_power_density/links/54e15ee90cf2966637928e62/Gasoline-fueled-solid-oxide-fuel-cell-with-high-power-density.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jinsoo_Kim8/publication... Output seems to be water and carbon dioxide; not perfect, of course, but much better than current IC engines, and no infrastructure to change. But there must be a reason why we haven't heard about them more since 2014 - still must be a lab-only thing for one reason or another.

monk_e_boy 9y ago

We still have the occasional steam powered traction engine go past our house. We live on a very steep hill, so there is a lot of stoking to get up pressure before they attempt it. I'd say we see them 2 or 3 times a year. Really cool beasts.

NegativeLatency 9y ago
I'd love to see a video of that
- monk_e_boy 9y ago
  I never thought to video them. There are rallies every year in our local town where 20 or so get together and drive around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbs5BfpbAH4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbs5BfpbAH4 My father-in-law is a conductor on a local steam engine. My SO got to drive it -- the lucky lady :)
  - monk_e_boy 9y ago
    http://prestonservices.co.uk/category/steam-engines/road-steam/traction-engines/road-locomotives/ http://prestonservices.co.uk/category/steam-engines/road-ste...
clock_tower 9y ago
That's something else! And yet I'm not surprised; all sorts of things turn out to have valuable niche uses despite being superseded in the mainstream. Now I'm wondering if the future might hold robot-driven sailing ships (wind and solar are renewable, and ocean shipping isn't exactly about speed) -- and I'm certainly not betting on internal-combustion engines going away for good.

cr0sh 9y ago

> Or we might move to a mix of electricity and hydrogen fuel cells; Toyota's betting on this, since natural-gas refining releases waste hydrogen. Safe containment of hydrogen is harder than safe containment of gasoline, though... It is possible to do a gasoline fuel cell: https://news.wsu.edu/2014/06/16/wsu-researchers-develop-fuel-cells-for-increased-airplane-efficiency/ https://news.wsu.edu/2014/06/16/wsu-researchers-develop-fuel... https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jinsoo_Kim8/publication/263700298_Gasoline-fueled_solid_oxide_fuel_cell_with_high_power_density/links/54e15ee90cf2966637928e62/Gasoline-fueled-solid-oxide-fuel-cell-with-high-power-density.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jinsoo_Kim8/publication... Output seems to be water and carbon dioxide; not perfect, of course, but much better than current IC engines, and no infrastructure to change. But there must be a reason why we haven't heard about them more since 2014 - still must be a lab-only thing for one reason or another.