The Big Three Get Some Company
In this week’s Economist, there is an excellent article (From geeks to greens) about high-tech executives emigrating toward more eco-friendly businesses–so-called green businesses. Former CEO heir-apparent at SAP, Shai Agassi, left recently to found Better Place, who recently announced a joint venture with Renault to eliminate hydrocarbon-consuming cars across Israel. The higher-profile case is Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, who recently joined Tesla Motors.
It is notable that these two executives left the comfort of their own industry, and branched out into something altogether different. What is more notable is that they both left to join the automotive industry. That’s right. Let me take this opportunity to be the first person to lump these two new, fresh, nimble companies with their altogether different progenitors. Clearly, neither Better Place nor Tesla is lining up to set up shop in Detroit, and they would likely cringe at the idea of roping them in with either of the Big Three. But, would that be the worst thing in the world? The reality is that the automobile is not going anywhere. The habits of the average automotive consumer are not going to change. And, these should be foregone conclusions. What will change, and should change, and must change is that automobiles will no longer force the United States (or its contemporaries) into a politically- and economically-pernicious dependence on oil–Middle Eastern, Latin American or otherwise.
As a side note, it is worth noting also that Israel has been self-aware enough to question whether it should be dependent on foreign oil. It is time the United States had asked the same question.
