I have a great deal of respect for Elon Musk - for what he is doing, not for his predictions. It's always great fun to go back twenty years or more, and see what the "futurists" predicted. There can be some eerie prescience, but for the most part, they are wildly, and often hilariously, wrong. The self driving car is getting a lot of press these days, but I've read, and I tend to agree with these statements, that in actual fact the technology is decades away from being widely adoptable, let alone widely adopted. I don't think most of us have to worry about losing our driving privileges for anything other than egregious driving offences, such as impaired driving, or going blind - at least not for the foreseeable future...

Point 1: EVs are a MAJOR source of pollution that devastates entire regions. What's that you say? No? How can this be? They're electric with no emissions right? Research the environmental destruction in China caused by mining and processing the rare earth minerals required to produce batteries. EVs may not pollute the regions in which they operate, but the manufacture of their batteries wreaks havoc on the environment. Musk....he wants to bring all that wholesome environmental goodness to U.S. soil by manufacturing batteries stateside. I'm not a fan of fossil fuel burning transportation. But then, I'm also not a fan of pretending that the alternative is an improvement, when recent history has shown us that it isn't.

Point 2: While I respect much of his vision, on driverless cars I disagree. He's an idiot...and I say that with all due respect. Automobiles have been manufactured for more than 100 years. "Computer" technologies for more than 50. Yet we still face (and feel the impact of) a seemingly uncountable number of manufacturing defects and technology "bugs" on a regular basis. I'm not looking forward to the press release from some autonomous vehicle manufacturer promising to investigate the bug or defect that caused a catastrophic failure resulting in an alarming number of deaths. They'll be ready with one thousand excuses about what went wrong, and another thousand promises to make things right. That will not comfort the families of the people who lose loved ones due to a "bug". It's one thing to arrest a DUI offender who killed an innocent, try, convict and lock him up for the rest of his life. Now imagine that the offender is a corporation. What do you think would happen? Arrests? Jail time? Forced closure of the company? Of course not. Litigation tied up in courts for years upon years. Maybe a paltry penalty. Perhaps a slap slap on the wrist and a stern warning.

Point 3: If I see this day coming in the U.S. it'll be an indication that it's time to leave the country. Frankly I wouldn't care where we go. My motto would be "anywhere but here". Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Franklin....they'd be shocked by, ashamed of and disappointed in what we've become. Let's not become that America.