$25 Billion Prize Could
Drive Next Great Leap by Car Companies
By Bradley Blakeman
NewsMax.com
The answer to America’s recovery, prosperity and
future lies in innovation, ingenuity and invention.
Over the past 135 years America contributed many of
the
inventions that have changed the world. Here are
13 that I have selected for their global impact:
-
Telephone invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell (U.S.)
-
Electric light bulb invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison (U.S.)
-
Automobile invented in 1889 by Gottlieb Daimler (Germany)
-
Radio invented in 1896 by Guglielmo Marconi (Italy)
-
Airplane invented in 1903 by the Wright brothers (U.S.)
-
Assembly line invented in 1913 by Henry Ford (U.S.)
-
Television invented in 1923/27 by Vladimir Zworykin (Russia and U.S.) and Philio Farnsworth (U.S.)
-
First programmable computer invented in 1936 by Konrad Zuse (Germany)
-
Nuclear reactor invented in 1942 by Enrico Femi (U.S.)
-
First personal computer invented in 1953 by IBM (U.S.)
-
Internet invented in 1969 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA (U.S.)
-
Cell phone invented in 1973 by Motorola (U.S.)
-
Windows invented in1983 by Bill Gates (U.S.)
Notice that a great invention has come along on
average every 7.25 years in the last 135 years. And
take note as well that when America invents we
invent for a mass market and share our technology
with others.
There is no doubt that because of America’s
ingenuity and invention the world has been changed
for the better. Most countries on our planet have
benefited greatly from Americas inventions and
America has prospered like no other as a result. Our
“super power” status has been attained as a direct
result on our entrepreneurial superiority.
Notice that the last great leap in energy innovation
was 70 years ago with the invention of the Nuclear
reactor.
The World is long overdo for the next great leap in
energy innovation and America must be the nation to
deliver it.
The great inventions in our lifetime have come in
computers. But, where are our other great inventors?
How many gas crises must we endure? How much more
beholden to foreign sources of fossil fuel must we
be? We should want to be clean and more efficient
not because its fashionable but because it makes
economic and civic sense.
I submit that America needs a “big think” on energy.
We need to focus government and private resources
and incentives on making the internal combustion
energy a thing of the past as soon as possible.
In the 1800’s with the invention of the internal
combustion engine, (one that runs on fossil fuel)
and the adaptation of that engine to people moving,
the world was forever changed.
By 1896, an American inventor and Automobile pioneer
named Henry Ford had built his first horseless
carriage. Thereafter in 1903 Henry Ford incorporated
the Ford Motor Company. He saw that this new
invention of moving people by engine had the
potential to revolutionize America and the world. He
knew that a people mover that most Americans could
afford and was able to be powered by cheap and
abundant fuel would create a new and vast market
almost overnight. Henry Ford’s application of the
assembly line process of car building was as
revolutionary as the invention of the internal
combustion engine itself.
By 1914, the assembly of a Model T was so effective
that it took a mere 93 minutes to build a car.
The irony is that if Henry Ford were alive today and
went to any local Ford dealer or any other car maker
for that matter — and popped the hood of any
gasoline powered car — he would be shocked, amazed
and disappointed. He would be shocked and amazed at
the computerized advancements to the gizmo’s and
gadget’s to the enhancement of the driving
experience and he would be disappointed that so
little had changed in the 170 years or so since the
invention of the internal combustion engine he
manufactured.
Why is it that no revolutionary change has come to
automobile operation and efficiency in over 100
years?
Well if you like conspiracy theories you would blame
the oil companies. You would argue that they did not
want to see the demise of the internal combustion
engine because of the loss of the market used to
fuel them.
On the other hand, it can be argued that we got
dumb, fat and lazy. We were content with what we had
and were satisfied with incidental improvements to
our automobiles that were more geared to our comfort
than efficiency. And the abundance of fuel at a
relatively affordable price did not make replacement
a priority.
Now is the time to end subsidies to oil companies
and invest that money in new and sensible
technologies that will help us make that next great
leap in innovation.
When President Kennedy in 1961 challenged America to
get to the Moon by the close of the decade, we did
not have the technology to make that challenge a
reality. Many scoffed, but even more were inspired.
Our nation was put to the test. Government
incentivized and business delivered. Look at how
many of the products we use today were developed out
of that effort. Even though President Kennedy was
not alive to see his vision become reality, he still
gets the credit for having achieved it.
Today our government loans tens of billions of
dollars to automobile companies for failure. What if
our government were to offer billions of dollars for
performance?
I suggest that our government should offer a $25
billion tax-free prize to the American car company
that can build a car that is clean (no pollution
footprint in design, production and use), can
achieve a range of at least 350 miles per powering,
achieve 60 MPH in seven seconds or less, could be
built in numerous marketable configurations and was
affordable to the average American. This prize would
sunset in seven years from the date of its
announcement.
If America were able to accomplish such a feat the
advancement would be as great — if not greater —
than Henry Ford’s success in the late 1800s and
early 1900s.
Scraping the internal combustion engine makes sense
and should be a national priority.
The $25 billion prize that America would award would
come back to our treasury many, many times over in
revenue produced by this giant leap in technology.
In the 1960s many skeptics bitterly critized
America’s investment in the race to the moon. They
argued that it was not a sure thing and therefore
any public monies spent were being gambled and
squandered. In retrospect, any government investment
was returned through the great leaps made to
computers, plastics, electronics, communications,
and medicine that still today benefit every
inhabitant to this planet in one way or another.
I believe that the next great advancement in the
operation of the automobile is long overdue.
The country that can develop the next generation of
personal transportation will not only change the
world but prosper like no other.
The greatness of America has always been in our
ingenuity and our ability to invent — not just for
ourselves, but for everyone else as well.
America must continue to lead and today the need is
to lead in the development and production of clean
and affordable energy and products.
This goal is not partisan. It is simply American.
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