Kinda off-topic, but interesting.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/16/1942252/all- fossil-fuel-vehicles-will- vanish-in-8-years-says- stanford-study
http://business.financialpost.com/news/transportation/ fossil-fuel-vehicles-will- vanish-in-8-years-in-twin- death-spiral-for-big-oil-and- big-autos-says-study-that- shocking-the-industry
Stanford University economist Tony Seba forecasts in his new report that
petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will no longer be sold anywhere
in the world within the next eight years. As a result, the
transportation market will transition and switch entirely to
electrification, "leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of
the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century," reports
Financial Post. From the report:
Seba's premise is that people will stop driving altogether. They will
switch en masse to self-drive electric vehicles (EVs) that are ten times
cheaper to run than fossil-based cars, with a near-zero marginal cost of
fuel and an expected lifespan of 1 million miles. Only nostalgics will
cling to the old habit of car ownership. The rest will adapt to vehicles
on demand. It will become harder to find a petrol station, spares, or
anybody to fix the 2,000 moving parts that bedevil the internal
combustion engine. Dealers will disappear by 2024. Cities will ban human
drivers once the data confirms how dangerous they can be behind a wheel.
This will spread to suburbs, and then beyond. There will be a "mass
stranding of existing vehicles." The value of second-hard cars will
plunge. You will have to pay to dispose of your old vehicle. It is a
twin "death spiral" for big oil and big autos, with ugly implications
for some big companies on the London Stock Exchange unless they adapt in
time. The long-term price of crude will fall to $25 a barrel. Most forms
of shale and deep-water drilling will no longer be viable. Assets will
be stranded. Scotland will forfeit any North Sea bonanza. Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Nigeria, and Venezuela will be in trouble.
--
John