George Jetson Would Be Disappointed with Autonomous Vehicles

Peter Zeihan 5 min

George Jetson would be disappointed with autonomous vehicles because the necessary infrastructure and chips are disappearing. Individual person vehicles will not be autopiloted or electric for much longer, though truck convoys may succeed.

  • Elon Musk

Chapters

  1. 0:00

    Electric Vehicle Viability

    The video argues that electric vehicles lack a future due to missing subsidies and infrastructure.

  2. 0:55

    Manufacturing Challenges

    Global lithium processing is concentrated in China, creating supply chain risks for local production. Tesla dominates the necessary engineering, but its subsidies are disappearing while other companies struggle.

  3. 2:46

    Chip Shortages for Autopilot

    High-end chips required for automated piloting will become unavailable as the world deglobalizes.

Key points

  • 0:00

    Electric models require huge subsidies that are disappearing under the Trump administration.

  • 0:00

    Half the US population lacks a garage to charge electric vehicles.

  • 0:55

    Eighty percent of global lithium processing occurs in China.

  • 0:55

    Tesla holds the necessary engineering but faces dissolving corporate empire risks.

  • 0:55

    Most US electric vehicle owners bought them as their third or fourth car.

  • 2:46

    Automated piloting requires about $2,000 worth of chips per vehicle.

  • 2:46

    High-end chip capacity will drop to zero in a deglobalizing world.

  • 2:46

    Truck convoys offer a viable alternative using lower-quality chips and human drivers.

Who and where

People · 1

  • Drawing of Elon Musk

    Elon Musk 1

    American businessman (born 1971)

    Photo 1

1. Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikidata · redrawn in our house style (Elon Musk)

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