Conspiracy theory - Oil companies.

[StateOfPlay]

Here we are in 2012, we can make mobile phones that that you can watch live sport, get driving directions, and facetime our nearest and dearest. Yet just 30 years ago, nobody even had a mobile. I never need to go in to my Bank to pay my bills and send money to a friend, I can do it on my laptop. They can give me a heart transplant, hip replacement and pills that cure headaches. I have a flat screen colour TV with DVD in Bluray, and 3D TV down my local pub.

Yet, petrol driven cars have been about for 100 years, and in all those years we haven't got a better alternative.

Is this because if someone invented a mass produced car that didn't need petroleum it would devastate the entire industry?

Lets be honest, the electric cars are a pretty **** alternative to petrol driven cars.

Are we the victims of an oil companies conspiracy?

 

[Reload]

That's like the theory of the everlasting light bulb.
I would agree there is a conspiracy but its to keep fuel prices as high as possible to line their own pockets. Having said that, I'm going to see if I can invent a viable alternative then get shell to give me squillions of pounds

 

[quattrojames]

It's not something I know anything about, but think about how battery technology has improved in recent years - maybe that will help to boost the advancement of electric cars?

 

[SootySport]

No conspiracy yet, except the pricing, seems like a cartel going on there. As for alternative fuels there is Hydrogen power, not quite there yet as storage in useable quantities is proving difficult and expensive, they'll get there eventually. Other forms off power like battery power is limited by battery technology and is not as clean as we first thought due to the dangerous and toxic metals in their make up, not to mention the metals are a finite resource as well. We're stuck with hybrids for now and LPG fuelling.

 

[tedward]

Dont give them too much credit. If the way BP dealt with the louisiana oil spill (both on a PR level and physicaly) is anything to go by they are not all that clued up!

 

[Turkster]

its all about control. re distribution of welth with oil as its means to do so, if we was smart enough to be able to make our own cars that could run on Zero Point Energy then we would hang up the fuel pumps and none of us would bother burning oil to get about,

enough of me banging on about it, here is a video to educate you with,
Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever THEY dont want you to know about - YouTube

 

[jdp1962]

Honda FCX Clarity

 

[warren_S5]

Conspiracy may be a strong word, its probably just a case of the right product at the time, and as humans don't suffer change easily it's stuck pretty much up to the point where it's running out and then it drives a need for change and alternatives. Alternatives have not been easy or cheap to harness, and after 10+ years of cars like the Prius we're only starting to get some barely half decent options surfacing on the horizon. Until car manufacturers stop designing cars like they're made to run on petrol/diesel the transition will be slow and painful.

Of course 'they' (Govts, interested parties, and those on the payroll) want us to keep using oil for fuel, heating, manufacture of plastics.... but it can't last indefinitely.

I wouldn't be surprised if fuel producers have indirectly subsidized the motor industry in some way over the years, but as most of it will be under the table we'll never know to what extent. Also remember than fuel tax is one of the mighty earners for Governments, so they don't want it to end either as it's effectively black gold to them.

There are wider questions to be asked as to how the world might change politically 'post oil'. Will relations between the middle east and the west become more strained when they are not earning good money from oil revenues as demand falls. For years there have been suggestions that oil supplies control has been a contributor to wars, so it will be interesting to see what changes in the world when alternatives become widely available.