If it wasn't for all the testing and development that Tesla is doing this wouldn't be happening - http://www.gizmag.com/tesla-home-battery/36276/

Batteries are the big holdup to solar and wind being more viable. With the car companies pushing the battery development forward the alternative energy market will go forward at a faster pace also.

 

I believe room-temperature super conductivity will appear at some point in the future.
That is going to radically alter motor and battery technology and everything else we do electrically and electronically.

 

That's putting it mildly. I can't wait.

 

As a 30+ year holder of Apple stock, I'm getting out as I can. Tim Cook's propensity to jump on the latest liberal fads like a teenybopper following the latest dance craze, is worrying me. The tipping point for me was when I saw his attitude toward shareholders regarding anthropogenic global warming. Apple has gobs of money to spend, but as an owner of that money, I'm not keen to see it thrown around. Solar farms, fancy watches, electric cars - these are all fine and I hope they're wildly successful. But they are not where I want to risk my retirement savings.

 

While I can foresee Apple as providing a computing platform for use in automobiles, the idea of being another car manufacturer is really not a profitable idea and it may be a recipe for the company's financial ruin.

Consider a future where we don't own cars anymore. We just call up the nearest robot car that meets our needs (a ride to the store versus a vacation in the mountains), and away we go. Today, most cars sit idle most of the time. That's an enormous economic waste that could be eliminated, along with the auto industry itself. Apple is more than capable of building robot cars to replace ~10 conventional cars.

One of the greatest errors I've seen in business is to naively assume you can take over someone else's business. This is only surpassed by the hubris of thinking that your own industry cannot be taken over or rendered irrelevant. Ackerman sounds exactly like the buggy whip makers did 100 years ago.

 

I believe room-temperature super conductivity will appear at some point in the future.
That is going to radically alter motor and battery technology and everything else we do electrically and electronically.

There are many positives but I personally believe room-temperature super conductivity will also be one of the most dangerous things we will create. Pencil sized devices could contain the energy of a several sticks of explosive without the chemical markers. Most of the large directed energy weapons will be possible to build on a man sized scale.

The main upside would be size/weight reductions and for an electric car that's very important but I don't they will really change basic technology where power losses are already very low at moderate costs like power transmission or brushless motors.