Tata Motors (the same company I wrote about as buying Jaguar) has unveiled a new $2500 car. This is the least expensive car in the world and is controversial, even in India, because it means that cars are now cheap enough that you can expect a huge increase in the number of cars. It does bring the apocalypse closer -- if every one consumes like an American, all the IPCC estimates about global warming will prove to be too conservative -- we may be looking at a drastically warmer world in a couple of decades.
The New York Times has an article about this. They focus on the poor state of Indian roads and the even poorer skills of Indian drivers. Which is quite true: one of the memories that stands out from a recent visit to Delhi was my attempt to cross a busy road at a pedestrian (zebra) crossing. There was no button to push, and no signal to make the cars stop. And when I ventured on to the street, all the vehicles would simply gun right at me, and at the last possible moment, swerve to miss me by inches. It was a scary experience, so yes, the $2500 car is going to increase the chaos on the streets.
But my point is about the title of that article: Indians Hit the Road Amid Elephants. There was no mention of elephants in that story. Where's the elephant reference coming from?
if only we had commercialized the magic carpets and the stand up rope, think of all the energy we could have saved!
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