On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy puts on his prophecy hat and talks about some of the things that we can see coming down the pike for the automotive industry. It is not a secret that the automotive industry is very slow to adapt with some things, the fact that they still employ salesmen when we have internet sales pretty sorted out is a testament to that. However, we also get into the nitty gritty when it comes to the propulsion systems of the future. Fact is, EV’s are not the the event horizon for personal transportation. Most likely it will be Hydrogen fuel cell or good old internal combustion, just with hydrogen as the fuel. When you burn hydrogen really the only thing you get as a byproduct is water and heat.
We also go into why drinking water from your car might not be such a great idea, because they are still going to need to lubricate the engines with hydrocarbons, they do a really good job. Finally, we tease a future where technicians are in such short supply and need to know so many different things in order for some of these shops to stay open, that the compensation will have to go up in kind to meet the demands of the job. It is only a matter of time until someone figures it out, but the fact that less than 10% of Uncle Jimmy’s brand specific dealerships are not posting want ads for technicians says that they haven’t figured it out quite yet.
Also Uncle Jimmy talks about some of the things to do in a self-driving car, and skips the “putting predictions in poems” move.
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