Edweird just pasted something into the comments section following my most recent electric car post. If I understand him correctly, it’s something he found in the comments following a “New York Times” article on the same subject. He attributed the quote to a fellow named Peter Hine. Well, I liked the quote, and thought that I’d spend a minute or two trying to track down this Peter Hine, in hopes that maybe he had a blog of his own or something. What I found though wasn’t quqite what I was expecting. I found an entry on the professional networking site LinkedIn, which listed his current position as “Grand High Exaulted Mystic Ruler at Amalgamated Armour Plate & Poison Gas PLC.” I don’t know that it’s the same Peter Hine, but I thought that it was worth a mention. Anyway, here’s the quote:
Major Auto Companies –
1957: “Cars can’t be legislated to be safe! Seatbelts will be too expensive and nobody would wear them anyway.”
1967: “Oh, we can’t have fuel mileage standards! Today they’ll require 20MPG, but what’s to prevent them from making it 40MPG!?”
1977: “Oh, we can’t possibly install airbags! They’re unproven and too expensive! We can’t afford to put one in every car”
1987: “Oh, we can’t have more stringent fuel mileage standards! Today they’ll require 25MPG, but what’s to prevent them from making it 60MPG!?”
1997: “Electric cars are impractical! People want big comfy vehicles, not laws to force them into tiny cramped unsafe ones that can only go 40 miles before they have to be recharged!”
2007: “Soon the Government will say that starting 2017, cars are no longer allowed to touch the road – they must levitate two inches above the road!”
2017: Toyota, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Peugeot introduce levitating vehicles.
That 2007 quote, by the way, is from GM’s Bob Lutz and it’s almost verbatim.
One Comment
Peugeot may make a levitating car first, but who would want to ride in it? If anyone can make a cool levitating car, it’s Bob Lutz.
Where do I sign up to buy the levitating Beetle?