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Why Are We Bailing Out Car 1.0?

Detroit is getting left behind

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 10, 2008 12:30 PM CST

(Newser) – In the modern global economy, Thomas Friedman has a simple rule: “Whatever can be done, will be done,” and if you’re not the one doing it, someone else is. Detroit’s automakers aren’t exploring new business models, so other companies are. When one of them clicks, this bailout “will be remembered as pouring billions into the CD business on the eve of the birth of the iPod.”

Much as Steve Jobs grasped the shifting music paradigm, a San Francisco-based company called Better Place wants to shift the mobility paradigm to one similar to a cell phone carrier. Customers lease cars like phones, then pay Better Place to access its network of charging stations. Don’t expect this kind of innovation out of Detroit, which is producing some cars with worse mileage than the Model-T. They’re Car 1.0. Let’s look for 2.0.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Tal Agassi, director of international deployment development for Better Place, demonstrates the use of a charge spot for an electric vehicle at a car park near Tel Aviv, Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)

A Tesla Roadster is charged with a special 220 volt, 70 amp charger system at a Tesla showroom in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008.

A charging plug of a prototype of an electric car is seen during a display of the car in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, May 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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Our bailout of Detroit will
be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay. - Thomas Friedman

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Why Are We Bailing Out Car 1.0?