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夏伊‧阿格西對於電動車的大膽計畫
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15 hours ago: Very interesting. Why would you want to run a whole country without oil? There is allegedly enough to run the world for a few more centuries. The only problem right now seems to be the cost of it. Is this a way for a small country without oil to gain the upper hand on its big oil-producing neighbors by getting developed countries to levy extra taxes on petroleum consuming vehicles? It seems to be partly innovation-fuelled and partly politically-fuelled.
josh andreas (0)
Oct 31 2010: some cars model now always have a unique itself.
www.camda.org or this www.expressionforum.orgWilliam Wu (-4)
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Jun 22 2010: You should give us the people's name from which you think Agassi has stolen their ideas.
Nenad Rogulja (+10)
Jul 23 2010: Robert, could you look at this link http://www.faqs.org/patents/inv/407310 . As I can tell he got his patent rather quickly. But it is quite precise, what opens a pathway toward standardization. Once there are agreement on system of battery format, replacement process and when accepted by car industry; there wouldn't be changes in quite some time from now - receipt for huge financial success. You can request patent reexamination when "third party thinks there was some prior art missed in the original examination" for his patent application (if there are preserved trace of that 'chat' and more then one year has passed since someone publicly spoken on the net about it before patent application is filed). Someone should strive for progress, but even more for justice as it brings more chance for progress. :) But, if you can't provide any prove, than you should't point finger, not even here. I believe that Agassi is quite capable of coming to this idea by himself.
kenny pepperell (+5)
Jul 24 2010: I sympathise with your plight but as a philosopher i take take a different view Q. who should recieve credit/acclaim
ANSWER A. the guy who come up with the original concept
B. the guys that affirmed/refined the original concept to practacality.
C. the guy that was sold on the idea and brought about the practice and created a new era and possibly a new industrial revolution..Jacque Armijo (+6)
Jul 31 2010: Thinking in the grand scheme of things, if it saves the world, does it really matter who came up with it?
Dan Elleson (+3)
Aug 26 2010: No great discovery or idea came from any single person in history. Each person builds with help of their peers|brothers and sisters, building on the ideas and discoveries of those who came before them.
Please work on your great ideas and take them to TED. Can't you? If you cannot then why be angry if he does? If you think about electric vehicles then don't you want them to be developed? Please say and do something useful.
Oct 28 2010: Thank you Dan!
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ablikim ablitip (0)
Sep 9 2010: chines good thinking
David Lipschitz (0)
Aug 21 2010: This is the most amazing video I have seen concerning renewable energy and electric cars. In 20 minutes it shows more than any other video, detailing strategy, positives and negatives, needs and requirements. Well done Shai.
Aug 13 2010: Good for Nissan to get on board with this. It beggars belief that the US car industry didn't want to get involved. I know that their sales have been falling through competition from Japanese and European marques so they may be short on capital for R&D but to ignore the inevitable seems like commercial suicide.
Aug 8 2010: Same here. I like this guy Agassi, he is a wonderful speaker, well informed, with much information for us on this subject all put together in a terrific speech. He's pleasant to look at and to listen to with a nice manner. Anyway, this sounds like a good idea. We need to do something FAST about this problem. It's sounds workable and any kinks that may come up can be addressed. Seems doable. Things sure are not good the way they are now. Maybe they could invent a new kind of battery appropriate for EV's, if the ones available today would not be efficient or safe enough.
kenny pepperell (+5)
Jul 24 2010: as long as its set up as a non profit organization the system will work if not then it will only postpone another energy/somthing or other crises through economic scarcity real or faigned.
Jason Camdelora (+4)
Jun 28 2010: The discussion revolves around the possible growth of alternative fuel sources. This I applaud while believing that more attention needs to be paid to the gasoline engines that will "drive" the economy until the carbon efficiency ratio is reached.
Specifically Gasoline turbine engines. This has been an impossibility due to the degradation or "deflection" extreme heat places upon economically feasible small gasoline turbine engine parts.
Ames labs recently announced a process by which Tin, Aluminum and Titanium is combined to make economically feasible heat resistant structures that could withstand the demands.
In helicopter engines between WW2 and Vietnam the Turbine increased engine efficiencies from the piston type many fold.May 16 2010: There is another problem with the batteries:
Lithium is (still) quite rare. According to wikipedia, there are only reserves about roughly 11-13 million tons. Divide that number by the number of vehicles today and you realize, that either there have to be found huge additional reserves or an alternative battery technology is necessary in the mid- term.
One of these technologies is zinc- air:
Zinc is even more frequent than e.g. copper or lead. Zinc air batteries have higher energy densities (both by mass and by volume) than lithium ones. Additionally, special batteries can be refilled with a zinc slurry medium, that could be regenerated externally (fuel cell like).
The big disadvantages however are:
- Rechargeable Zn Air batteries are quite new technology (problems with zinc- "dendrites")
- Currently they do not endure more than roughly 100 cycles
- Problems with the gas exchange (atmospheric oxygen is consumed during operation and generated during recharging)May 31 2010: Well, do you know the number of cars in the world, and how much lithium is needed for a battery? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
But if you need 9 billion electric cars (thats 1,5 cars per person) it leaves 1,2 kg of lithium for every car. I don't know the specs, but i would imagine the lithium in a battery to not reach that much more?
Joshua Simcox (+1)
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Nov 25 2009: There is a Scientist in St. Petersburgh RU, who has a working prototype of a car that can gather ether energy from an antenna and collector plate underneath the car from the road. It eliminates the need for a battery in an electric car. Dr. Victor Ivanovich Petrik. The car is amazing and only needs a cable system that does not require energy to flow through the wire but around it. The wires also can be cut and still transmit like a spiderweb. I saw this energy transmit through a glass of water where the glass should have been an insulator not a conductor.
There is one other genius who could lend a great deal to this project named John Hutchinson in Canada. He has a crystal battery that never loses charge once created.This post has been removed by the author.
Pawel Szalwa (0)
May 16 2010: Hoping that mr John Hutchinson or anybody will create a magic baterry could be compared with asking Jesus to charge an empty battery on a desert. Except that Agassi mentioned about having no time for that.
Michael Burke (0)
Apr 13 2009: I'd like to point out a few problems with this because that's what I do. Everyone knows that a battery loses it's performance after time. This rate of degradation increases if you recharge the battery when it isn't almost completely depleted and/or when you don't recharge it all the way to 100%. Given the average person's daily commute and that they recharge their car while at work, how long will it be before the battery becomes unusable? Also, what is the cost to take a worn down battery and recycle it to a brand new battery?
Simon le Bon (+5)
Jul 31 2009: There are techniques (desulphation by PWM frequency sweep) to recondition batteries.
The problems you describe is the so called memory effect. Not all batteries suffer from this.Christopher Snowden (+3)
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Aug 1 2009: Only the old cadmium batteries are effected by "the memory effect". Lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries have 1000's of charge cycles and are not effected by the "memory effect".
Lithium batteries do have their issues though. High temperatures kill the overall life of the battery, lithium is highly explosive when it encounters water, and you should not the let battery die completely (again unlike cadmium batteries).Aug 5 2009: Roughly 2000 recharges right? I think a problem lies in the dieing of the battery, but not necessarily in the charge, Can a lithium battery overcharge?
Christopher Snowden (+3)
May 2 2010: Lithium batteries also can not be overcharged. Another notable consideration about lithium batteries is that they have a shelf life. Unlike cadmium and metal hydride, lithium batteries typically last about one year, regardless if they are used.
Marcus Heavyweather (+4)
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Aug 6 2009: The idea is to get the resistance of the battery down. Have a look at Ogron BV`s website. They claim to have designed a process to produce low resistance lithium batteries. The process should work for all types of lithium batteries.
They claim to have retrofittet a conventional car to run 500km on one charge and recharge in under 5min...with the batteries not getting hot (or exploding ;) )
Magne Bäckman (+39)
May 10 2010: You know, the current car batteries in cars that run on gas, is being charged while you drive and they seem to work fine so I don't really see the problem with charging a battery that is not empty or not charging it to 100 %
manjula krish (+2)
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May 4 2010: I want to buy a electric car. because Mr.Shai Agassi said that about the electric cars with comfortable. but the present status, the fuels are very less.. even the next generation could not able to get a fuels.
I thing the electric cars consume less power than other cars.however , the electric cars should be not harmful to the environment.but the improper disposal of their engines causes the poisoning to the environment
so the engineer should design the electric cars with comfortable, convenient, less power consumption from the battery and not harmful to the environment
and i expected to be the electric cars are in the zero-emission system for the future.. Even in the present the zero carbon emission electric cars are created..i am very proud about Mr. Shai , because he explain the ideas in clear manner
And this electric cars are very speed, we went in a minute for a mile...the diesel or other cars are emitted more tones of co2..its very dangerous.so i use the electric cars.Shalom Freedman (+12)
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Apr 23 2010: I just hope that Agassi 's plan works out. His presentation of it was truly impressive. And it will be a better world if it does work, and carbon emissions are cut.
Mark Frost (+2)
May 6 2009: He is clearly on to something here. But still we are stuck on the whole battery thing. If you can make a parking location a charging station then why not the entire road surface too. Think of the old slot cars of the 1960s -- those toy young boys played with. Now imagine a road like a slot car set -- a slot in the middle to steer the car, and a wire or conductor embedded in the road surface either side of the slot. These are in contact with flexible conducting brushes suspended from the car. As the car passes along the road it is powered by electricity supplied by the road. Let's just remove the slot for now and wire our roads. The only battery you might need is if you were to leave the road surface. If we could power all these proposed electric cars and not need any batteries would that not be better?
John Robbins (-1)
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May 6 2009: This is a compelling idea, and we would do well to implement on a island scale (like Hawaii). Major roads around the big island become wired, a lighter weight, shorter range battery would then be enough to get you to more remote locations/residencies and back wherein the individual car batteries could then be re-charged while driving the wire roadways.
Reed Carpenter (-1)
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May 6 2009: I have seen recent mention of Piezoelectric sensor technologies being developed in Israel that might be used to pick up road vibration and convert it to electrical energy. The amounts are fairly significant and while they might not be directly used to power a car battery they can provide an indirect source via the grid.
Andrew Horder (+3)
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May 6 2009: I guess the big problem with electrifying the road network would be initial infrastructure costs and then maintenance. By keeping the power supply within the vehicle, those are both lower.
Bruce McHenry (+8)
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May 6 2009: Yes, but one should compare those costs against the life cycle costs of batteries and battery swap stations. Unless batteries really do get cheaper by factor of at least ten, the cost of powering roads is likely to be lower and we would not need so many service stations.
Here's a back-of-the-envelope kind of proof: Assume there are 200M electric cars in the US and 45,000 miles of Interstate and 155,000 other roads to power at $2 million per mile. The cost of electrification is 200,000 * 2M = 400B. That's $2000 per car with virtually unlimited range and it is likely that the replacement and maintenance costs would be dramatically lower.
The problem of course is getting across the Valley of Death where nobody wants to buy a car with electric pick-ups because there are no powered roads, and nobody wants to power the roads b/c there are no cars with pick-ups.
REQUESTS: A dominant design for powered roads, and electric pick-ups as an (after market) optionrob osborne (-1)
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Mar 18 2010: The costs aren't lower at all, simply more widely distributed -- "socialist", if you will.
Bruce McHenry (+8)
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May 6 2009: It turns out that the slot is a really bad idea. Steering is the most effective way to avoid most accidents. Light rail vehicles have the highest accident rates of any kind of vehicle. They can't swerve (and also have long stopping distances).
Cecil Marton (-19)
Mar 6 2010: I like absolute positioning, any vehicle could be fitted with the software, markers in the middle of the lane (in light of toyota's effort), collision avoidance, autopilot, etc. better to have a chip on your car (like mandatory boats) than in your back I say. maybe white boxes for cars to run on refined ocean water. checkout my slotline car trak won local waste to art comp division in dubbo australia & goes to menindee for regionals in june (brighten slotline way), it may be good to have electric cars running off the grid in the city oneday to, in which case have covered both bases.
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Bruce McHenry (+8)
May 6 2009: Per my reply to Horder's reply above, the problem with this good idea is getting to a critical mass of electric vehicles. They will probably come in many forms: hybrids, plug-in hybrids, non-swappable all-electric and swappable electric.
Here is another complementary idea: hybrid-electric roadtrains. These would be composed mostly of all-electric cars that have the option of being pulled by a vehicle with combustion engine.
They would also address congestion, safety and driving effort. For details and to get involved, go to http://Roadtrains.usShelley List (0)
Dec 30 2009: I'd think this idea would start in large cities and spread from there. As Shai said, it's the 2-car families that will have an EV for city driving and the old gas vehicle for trips off the grid.
My worry about the road-embedded electrical source: Batteries will go through numerous generations of improvement. Once we plant technology into a road, it won't be updated any time soon.
May 10 2009: With some of the developments in wireless electricity it could be possible without the need for any physical contact. You could still have a battery/capacitor which is then wirelessly charged from the roadside. An electric infrastructure already exists to power street lamps, traffic lights etc and could quickly be modified once the technology reaches maturity. Here's a recent video that shows just how mature this technology already is.
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/is-this-the-end-of-the-wireThis post has been removed by the author.
Cecil Marton (-19)
May 16 2009: You can kind of compare wireless electricity to a wireless network and cable: it is less secure, costs more and is not as quick (just how much more electricity/ resources would be used in distribution and theft or sabotage?), not to mention the extra frequencies that would be produced (personally I think I get enough and I don't even own a cellphone).
May 17 2009: This technology uses magnetic resonance which doesn't interact with living tissue, it's currently about 70% efficient (much more efficient than using oil). You would buy electricity like you buy anything online - you just need to automatically (via bluetooth say) log in as you pass the transmitter and then it works out how many kwh you've taken and charges your credit card. Speed doesn't come into it, just energy - batteries charge much slower than the electricity provided so the bottleneck is with the batteries not the electricity supply. When you return home you'd plug in as normal - the wireless electricity would just top you up as you drove.
Cecil Marton (-19)
Mar 6 2010: how about hydrogen produced in the car or hydrogen produced in the car to run electric motors? your car would still require a "pre-charge" charge in waiting to start acceleration. in the case with hydrogen a small reservoir is required to deliver hydrogen enough for acceleration while more is produced to keep the system charged. 'shock treatment' from a crash could still happen, what about changing the frequency to make electricity safe?
Aug 26 2009: A compelling idea, but a few problems such as rain and road grime (tire and brake dust, natural dirt, road kill, etc.) getting in the 'slot' cause problems. And what happens when it snows and there's 10cm of compacted snow overtop of the slot?
You could extend the idea to a rail beside the road that uses resonant transfer to recharge the car as it drives. A protective guardrail in front of it and interrupt switches in the event it becomes damaged would make it safe. And the rails wouldn't have to run the length of the road, but in sections. As you drive there'd be a cyce; charge, use battery, charge, use battery....
See other TED videos for information on resonant transfer - one recent one shows televisions and cellphones running off power provided wirelessly.Dan Swartz (+2)
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Sep 2 2009: Recharge stations and battery swap out issues SOLVED: www.witricity.com. WIRELESS ELECTRICITY is here! Within a very short time (a year or so) WIRELESS ELECTRICITY will be on the market. We could easily utilize the highway/city street light system and adapt it with the wireless electricity components/system! Sure there's infrastructure investment, but MINIMAL when one compares the overall advantages. With tax incentives added to renewable electricity and heavier taxes on fossil fuels, the economy will gravitate towards renewable sources and electric cars!
Kyle Mezzi (+5)
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Mar 5 2010: will someone please explain how this idea of wired roads is even remotely feasible, nevermind easier than battery switching...
Agassi's idea is completely feasible...and way simpler than wiring the roads...we can barely keep our roads here in the US maintained with asphalt, never mind running wires through them...
Lets come back down to earth and solve this problem like intelligent people, the way Shai Agassi has been doing, shall we?
Chander Viswanathan (-1)
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Apr 8 2010: I think we need to attack the electricity generation problem before the fuel usage problem. Because if we switch to electricity for almost all of our daily operations (cars and any other machinery that could be using "fuel") , it would eventually increase the need to produce electricity and the electricity production would eventually resort to using the same fuel that we are trying to avoid.
Torbjorn Sassersson (+2)
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Apr 4 2010: The problem with electric cars is that they are not used, not produced and not very much invested in. They should be everywhere by now. They are not. The oil economy still rules. There are allways lame excuses not to invest. Still companies like Tesla Motors proves its possible to produce a high performance car. In Sweden there is a company called Electro Engines (http://www.electroengine.se/). They take ordinary cars and replace the gas engine with an electric engine and the gas tank with a battery. No need to develop anything new. Just take all old cars and transform them into electric cars. Smart. Let's see if the company will be successful.
timo weber (+1)
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Apr 1 2010: also i d like to add - electric cars can be much more powerful - see tesla versus lotus AND would it be nice to keep the oil price down and not go to war for oil anymore and all the investment is a great way to create jobs
HOWEVER there is one big problem - jealousy the country that does not adopt electric cars or adopt it later will benfit from lower oil costs and maybe leapfrog initial developments in other words the early adopters (countries) are taking big risks. could work out very well for them or maybe give other non green countries a competitive edge....Nikolas Gerolympos (+1)
Nov 8 2009: Electric Cars will remain half solutions as long as the other (much greater) part of the equation is not brought up to speed. And that is (....drums....) Power generation! With the vast majority of power being produced by burning oil and coal all that electric cars can do is take pollution off Mr Smug's backyard (insert random city here) and take it to the area around the generators, giving the heavily subsidized car manufacturer a fat profit.
I would like to see an efficient and realistic plan from the Power Plant all the way to the exhaust (or lack of it) of my automobile before I allow the government to take my taxes away and give them to opportunistic exploiters in the name of the environment.
These forums must be filled with smart people so with the risk of sounding arrogant, I will try to remind you that governments are terrible terrible investors so if they are claiming 'green' taxes and 'incentives' be alarmed and critical.maribeth dennis (+4)
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Nov 8 2009: There was a program on Now on PBS recently that presented the reality that is happening in Denmark at the present time! They are using windmills in the ocean, and storing the electricity in the cars, which charge at night. It is a great program!
Prashobh Karunakaran (+8)
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Nov 12 2009: Nikolas Gerolympasis unfair in criticizing Shai Agassi. You mention the problem of most electric power being produced with coal and oil. The immediate reaponse to this is that this is won't you like to breath fresh air in a city like New York where all vehicles run on electric batteries. Nikolas should take his pronouncement of pessimism to the government who can enforce carbon sequestion on power plants, as has been successfully done in Beulah, North Dakota. CO2 has also been used to do enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as in Texas, or mixed with MgO or CaO to form carbonates. Electric vehicles can currently get efficiencies of 85% while combustion engines are 19% efficient, that is 66% positive for EVs. Bharat Wagh stated that there is 51% drop in efficiency from power station to batteries. So EVs are still positive by 11% even without considering carbon sequestion.
Nikolas Gerolympos (+1)
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Apr 1 2010: missed my point friend
Government intervension has always been with questionable motives and doubt-able results.
I have seen the inner workings of the Euro carbon markets; and most of all the subsidy clean energy schemes that have been in place for more than a decade in the EU (I dont know much about the rest of the globe in these so I leave it up to others to comment) and I can tell you they have been shambles.
You are talking about energy efficiency; I m talking about money efficiency.
Ps. i dont critisize mr Agassi in my post before; and I would be glad if you could refrain from calling anyone speptic about these ideas 'special interest group', which you did in your other post -its quite generic, no? :-)
Robert Mortensen (+6)
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Nov 25 2009: Here in Norway, about 99% of all electricity is clean, ie water, wind, tidal.
A metric litre of gasoline, in Norway, costs about USD $2.5. (1 litre ~ 0.26 US gallons), despite Norway producing 5% of the worlds oil.
Also, if you buy a new car, the taxes on the car are higher than what the car itself costs. For example, if I were to buy a Jeep Patriot Limited 2009, brand new, it would cost me NOK 400.000~ USD $72.000 These taxes are in place because of the pollution from the cars, and to encourage people to travel by bus or train. If I were to buy an electric car, it would be less taxes, no yearly fees, lower insurance, I could drive in the bus-lanes and there are free-of-charge charging spots in city centres and large shopping malls, for example outside Ikea :-)Nikolas Gerolympos (+1)
Apr 1 2010: That sounds awesome! achieving these levels is an astonishing result; and its really nice to see a country re investing in itself. But please bear in mind that we are talking about one of the richest countries in the world in terms of gdp per capita; and that it will be a painfull and long process for the rest to follow suit; thats all
Thanks
Cecil Marton (-19)
Mar 26 2010: they say they cannot make the batteries. why not just have batteries in forklifts? coal could still be mined for fireplaces and camping. If I could exhibit a couple of astrum tourers in the royal sydney motor show (one would run on smartgas and the other could run on hydrogen), I would have them painted like mr ray and nemo from the movie "finding nemo".
George Tonchev (0)
Mar 28 2010: The most efficient power generation by patented reflector augmented Solar PV modules. See a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE-mOgND07I&feature=channel
Mar 7 2010: This is a very interesting video. I feel that they may be able to run the cars without "recharge stations" instead use something along the lines of pulling power from a grid right from the road. I feel that America needs to step up and use action. Words do not get you anywhere. Some concerns I do have though are what happens in emergency situations? there is no power and you have a car that only runs on electricity. I see potential problems there, but a noble idea non the less.
Adrian Gilbert (0)
Jan 30 2010: Why not integrate other great technologies such as wireless electricity? By the time this proposal finalizes wireless electricity should be a viable method for powering electric cars and roadways. Quit playing around with windmills, let's talk about solving the world's energy crisis with fusion. Of course fusion isn't quite there yet, but it would be if the U.S. Gov't wanted it to be. If we want to save this economy and world we need to aim a little higher and complete the transition into a true planetary phase civilization.
Kyle Mezzi (+5)
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Mar 5 2010: I like the fusion idea, but its still a way off. But seriously...electrified roadways...how is that any simpler than (or even close to) battery switching and charging stations?
nita charron (-1)
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Feb 15 2010: Wonderful TED talk! Here are a few concerns/obstacles/opportunities that come to mind for me in the USA...
1) Will the EV really be cheaper per gallon for the consumer? I'm not so sure. Federal, State and Local taxes would be raised exponentially to make up for the lost revenue of the gasoline taxes. They charge people fines here for driving WVO (vegetable oil) cars due to the lost gasoline revenue. So not only is there no incentive, they fine people who think out of the box to drive non-gasoline cars.
2) An EV needs to be small and lightweight, so how safe is it on the roads? I've seen SMART cars and they look like death traps to me on the highways. I need a strong, safe vehicle especially amidst tractor trailers, trucks, etc, on the highways.
3) While on the highway, will an EV have the power to "punch it" (fast acceleration) to avoid accidents like a gasoline car? Having an EV on a small island, where a golf cart would also suffice is not a good test in my view.Rob Peters (+2)
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Jan 28 2010: The issue boils down to money. The Government gets money by taxing gasoline. Special interest groups from the auto industry stand to lose big by going full EV. That is why they push hybrids. An EV vehicle will last 10 times longer then a IC car with little maintenance. The real irony is that we spend 600 billion a year on military that could be reduced by at least two thirds if we weren't trying to secure oil interests. It is only a matter of time .
melanie mitzner (0)
Feb 11 2010: you got that one right - 600 billion (probably more by now) in the military industrial complex to secure oil interests. takes a warrior to go eco, unforch. http://thegroovymind.blogspot.com
Manuel Marchiodi (+1)
Jan 3 2010: http://www.desertec.org/en/foundation/
Manuel Marchiodi (+1)
Jan 3 2010: http://www.google.org/recharge/overview.html
ellen doms (-25)
Dec 23 2009: Ik verdiepte me in zuren en giffen
Ragnar Birko (+176)
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Jul 5 2009: If we really want to decrease our ecological footprint I can't help but wonder why stop at the "switch" & sharing "batteries" and not just outright share the whole "car" when we are not using it. An yeah I have an inkling of the many opposing voices but we not only need to change business models and adopt new technologies but more important than anything, we need to "change our relationship between ourselves and planet earth"; i.e. our own behavior.
Despite my musings, this talk and the project behind it, is one of the better talks I've heard in a while (in and outside ted). I agree wholeheartedly, the electric car is the future and hopefully Agassi will get his way in that such a project will foster our long overdue and much needed carbon free energy grid.Simon le Bon (+5)
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Jul 31 2009: In the Netherlands there are so called 'greenwheels' where the car is shared to lower the TCO.
http://www.greenwheels.nl/Aug 26 2009: because in North America, car ownership and the choice of the car you drive is a personal thing. You're showing the world something of who you are by the car you drive, and the space within it is considered your personal territory as much as the inside of your home. Coming out with a new concept of transportation AND asking for a cultural shift is swimming against an extremely strong current indeed.
Bjørn Lyngstad (+3)
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Nov 30 2009: I currently live in North America, and I agree with this observation. Cultural shifts like this happen all the time, though - even from one generation to the next. Asking for such a shift is necessary and would indeed be desirable - and not just for environmental reasons alone.
Trevor Lewis (+13)
Dec 15 2009: I agree, but the problem is degree of change you ask for. Recall that generational cultural shifts are typically driven by the generation themselves, while the plan Mr. Agassi is suggesting is working from the governmental/corporate standpoint - an external change applied to the people, not an internal change made by the people.
Asking for such a shift is a good idea, and I would support it. Unfortunately, the masses of North America likely wouldn't, and my vote and those others who support the change would likely be an order of magnitude less important than the group of people who are scared of change and like their cars too much. If you want a real life example of humanity's fear of change, look up the history on British Columbian Electoral Reform. The No vote won, despite an absurdly weak campaign platform.
Paulius Olsevskas (+7)
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Dec 2 2009: I love this talk!
Mr Agassi' manner of speaking is very persuasive, and he's very cool when talking, thus postulating his message.
this one, inspires taking action. the talk made my day.
pesronally, i ride a bike and encourage my neighbours to recycle as much as posible.
I would love to do something about this campaign!
on the critical side, how expensive it would be to build winmills or other sources for generation electricity? and how would that add up to the price of energy. maybe those kites of Saul Griffith's would help?Trevor Lewis (+13)
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Dec 15 2009: To respond to your criticism about the economics of building windmills or other clean energy infrastructure, you also have to consider the mounting costs of oil extraction and refining. Even ignoring the increasing social (and eventually legal) drive to reduce oil use, there's the simple fact that oil extraction is getting more expensive every year - we have to go to increasingly remote and/or deep locations to get at it.
Plus, since a particular barrel of oil can only be used once, the extraction and refining costs on maintaining a supply must be paid continuously. Wind, Hydro and Solar Power plants have to be built once, and then simply require maintenance to continue generating energy, which, while still expensive, is significantly less expensive than the stable oil power costs.
A side note relating to this topic: there's an interesting redesigned car a fairly new company called Aptera is working on - completely electric, and far more aerodynamic than normal cars.
About this talk
忘了油電混燃車 (Hybrid) 吧，夏伊‧阿格西認為，有效降低二氧化碳排放量的方法，就是使用電動車。他創立的公司 Better Place 有著不同凡響的計劃，讓整個國家在 2020 前，可以不用任何石油。
Translated into Chinese (Traditional) by 林婉婷 Adrienne Lin
Reviewed by Chunfung Chen
Comments? Please email the translators above.
About Shai Agassi
Shai Agassi wants to put you behind the wheel of an electric car -- but he doesn't want you to sacrifice convenience (or cash) to do it. Full bio and more links
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Adam Zimmerman (0)