60mpg would just about kill most speed laws..Fuel economy has actually gone down considerably from recent times for a couple of reasons. But namely, while most modern engines run more efficiently, most modern day cars have considerably gone up in weight. Part of the reasons are
2) All the electronic crap that is put into a car these days, nav, entertainment systems etc.
This isn’t going away anytime soon, since consumers are demanding #2 (case in point..yourself) and #1 is essential. While these nice science experiments do prove that a prototype, lightweight, pod can achieve higher gas mileage, most of it won’t be carried over into the real world. I think any such government mandate to have an arbitrary MPG requirement across the board by an arbitrary date would kill just all we know and love about cars and turn them into toaster appliances with no soul/etc.I used 60mph as an example of what the government could do to increase the mpg of cars. Hell, we could slow it down to 55 again, and make things really efficient. Anyway, we’re barking up the wrong tree here imho. If the consider is dependency on foreign oil, environment etc, we’re better of spending time coming up with alternative fuels….
No regulation is needed for this. The markets will take care of this just fine…See, when gas prices were almost $5/gallon, people started to cut back on travel, and then there was this mad dash to find alternative fuels. Now that gas is back to around $3/gallon, people don’t care as much about conservation and alternative fuels….So the best way to reshape our energy dependency is let the markets take care of it. If the cost of alternative fuel becomes competitive to petro, problem solved.
Unrelated to this topic, I can’t relate to the iCar idea. I frankly think car manufacturers are putting too much crap into a car. A car is meant to be driven. Why are car companies trying to put the ability to read email into a car, a wifi hotspot in a car,etc etc etc..Then again, I’m the type of person that special orders to have everything taken out. No sunroof (don’t like the idea of imploding sunroofs), no technology package (don’t like to deal with electrical gremlins), no dvd infotainment system, etc.
