Disposing waste is good. If it contributes to replacing petroleum, even to a small degree, all the better.

It is easier to hire someone at a stationary site to unload than to hire a driver who does that.

At some point we will reach a tipping point where no one will invest $10 billion dollars for 40 years in a refinery for gasoline -- too much risk of stranded assets as is now happening with coal power plants in some parts of the world. I don't know when that will be, but when it does happen, gas prices (not necessarily oil) will go sky high and no one will buy a gasser.

@SJC: We don't see many three-piece suits in Denver. And most people have a computer case strapped across their shoulder, if anything, but not many briefcases. :-)

Ride sharing usually refers to privately owned vehicles being shared for a ride. But it could equally apply to a small van or bus, which then becomes part of a public transportation system. With a good system you don't need to own. I don't own my internet, nor my cell phone access. Although I do own a toothbrush -- maybe two. :-)

We are seeing "dockless" electric scooters being trialed in Denver, along with other cities. I believe we will see scooters, bikes, car sharing, and limited-route self-driving buses tested as last-mile alternatives. Some solution will emerge.

It should not contribute to rush hour traffic. People have to be home to receive the delivery.

I think this is the future for the grid. Balancing will come from private companies, primarily using fuel cell power generation.

No. The tariffs will be too high.

@SJC: Agree. More frequency means more ridership. Maybe autonomous vehicles will make it possible.

Most car salesmen work for the nearest paycheck. They may not be at the dealership by the time the car comes in for service. This is strictly ignorance of the product. I know a fellow who sells cars. He drove over to my house and showed me a Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid. He was amazed at the gas mileage. I knew more about the car, and hybrid terminology than he did. He said a woman came to the lot and bought the car, full price, no questions asked because she know about it. He still has not learned anything about them because he is busy selling gassers to uninformed buyers. That is what he knows.

$5.00 gas will overtake Trump.

Trump thinks the US still matters. California and other states will tie this up in court for years. Meanwhile, China and Europe will drive the standards. No point in producing a cheap, high emissions car for US when you have to build a cheap, low emissions car for China.

DOE should add another $40 million to subsidize the purchase of all electric school buses. This will save more in health costs over the long run than the initial investment.

sd: Or SOFC fuel cells would take over.

This all seems to point to a need for energy storage. With intermittent generation and intermittent demand, we can no longer look to the grid and expect to produce exactly what is demanded at any time.

Watch for a rapid shift to SOFCs from turbines. Electricity can be produced with natural gas, but it is clean, can be distributed and is rapidly dispatched. Corporations will do the investing -- Apple, Amazon, Walmart, and many other large installations. They will become the energy providers.

Noise restrictions could kill Harley sales, and good riddance.

Roger P: and the product can be stored for seasonal needs, not just short-term load balancing.

Someone please explain how generating heat from nuclear or otherwise in the atmosphere would or would not add to global warming. After all, that heat will still be trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gasses, not radiated into space any more than fossil fuel heat.

Yes, and the US Government is trying to dump the dirty gassers on the US market. Talk about fighting the last war.

Build the customer base while working on the technology. If you wait for Automated vehicles, someone else will already own the market.

What he said. Except, I can see BEV's used for household leveling for those who have solar panels on the roof.

mahonj is probably correct. Even this article focuses on fatalities. The real payoff is in reduced injuries (including traumatic brain), lower hospital costs, dramatically reduced auto repair costs, etc. But the benefits don't have to wait for fully autonomous cars. Full implementation of currently available safety features across all vehicles can move us in this direction with less publicity around fatal errors.

According to this, a virtual train in China can recharge fully in 10 minutes for. While it has only 15 kilometer range, it carries 300 passengers. So how does that translate to distance for a car? And more to the point, what kind of batteries are they using?