Pollution: when will we start taking the problem seriously?
Venture Beat poses the uncomfortable question as to how long it will take until we start seeing cars as morally unacceptable.
I may be alone in this, but when I see a vehicle like the one in the photograph driving around with some kind of engine problem and belching out smoke, my first thought is that something must be done, now, and the car taken off the road immediately. In the wake of the Volkswagen scandal I have begun to have the same feeling when I see one of the German manufacturer’s diesel vehicles: how can it be that this car is still on the road when we know with absolute certainty that its nitrogen oxide emission rate is 40 times over the legal limit, while at the same time, the company’s senior management is making excuses and talking about a trade war and blaming other brands.
The Volkswagen scandal, and others like it, is raising awareness about the environment. Sure, we all like to think we’re worried about the environment, but the simple truth is that diesel vehicles, and a great many petrol cars as well, should be taken off the road now. That is how serious the problem is.
Obviously, banning these vehicles at present, when the alternatives that electric technology can offer are still either too expensive, unreliable, or not fast enough, or a combination thereof, is not an option. What’s more, the owners of those polluting cars have a right to their money back: presumably they acted in good faith and based on the information at hand when they bought their supposedly low-emissions diesels
But the truth is that I am increasingly worried about going into the city each morning surrounded by vehicles spewing pollution into the air while the skyline gradually turns to a dirty grey brown color, and then knowing that we are going to be sucking that air into our lungs all day.
As things stand, the possibility of banning the manufacture or circulation of fossil fuel-driven vehicles is non-existent. But anybody able to perform two simple environmental calculations knows what’s at stake here: the current situation is unsustainable and requires urgent action to replace these vehicles. What kind of economic parameters would we be talking about if these vehicles were banned immediately and companies were forced to produce electric vehicles if they wanted to stay in business?
And if this were accompanied by measures to persuade the owners of these vehicles to take them off the road while incentives to replace them were offered? What would happen, from the perspective of competition, if the electric market were developed as it were, by decree, and if brands were forced to produce these vehicles and compete among each other to excel in finding non-polluting alternatives?
The current situation is absurd: electric cars sales are still tiny in most countries, and the options are not yet competitive in terms of price, performance and driving range. Tesla’s strategy illustrates the situation: luxury cars are being used to finance the development of more accessible models. Alternatives such as the recently launched Car2go service in Madrid, in which I participated, are welcome, but they aren’t going to change things much, although they will bring more people into contact with electric vehicles, who will see that they perform very well. But at this rate, we’re never going to get there.
What is needed for society as a whole to really come out against fossil-fuel powered vehicles. The technology that will replace them has all the features people want, but is a long way in terms of other, equally important factors. The open sourcing of Tesla’s patent and technology portfolio is a bold step for a market leader, but so far, no other manufacturers seem to be interested in entering the electric car market to bring about greater competitiveness.
We should remember that the motor industry tends to have long development cycles: to get an idea from the drawing board to the showroom takes years, not months, meaning that we’re going to have to wait some time yet before electric vehicles are within most people’s reach. At the same time, alternatives such as car-sharing, car-pooling, apps, ride sharing, etc offer us a glimpse of a future where people will no longer own cars, and will see them simply as a service.
Returning to our initial question as to how long it will take before we see automobiles in negative terms? Could we ever turn our backs on technology that most of us have grown up with and that dates back now more than a century? Has Volkswagen really changed anything at all?
(En español, aquí)
