Right, that was my point. You can find ways of eliminating some sources of friction in a system, as was done in electric engines. Before you get to the electr

Right, that was my point. You can find ways of eliminating some sources of friction in a system, as was done in electric engines. Before you get to the electric motor, though, you will almost certainly have to deal with it in another way. Path dependence being hard to ignore for what we have done to deal with friction in the history of the car. My assertion doesn't lean on "bad architecture," as I feel that there are just different choices and tradeoffs. I do think you should often times look for improvements in the tech you are working with instead of replacements. Replacing tech can, of course, be the correct choice. Often, it is a death knell for the people that are getting replaced. We solve that at societal levels in ways that are different from how you solve them at the local technical choice level.