The Tesla Argument, History Repeats Itself: 1910 vs 2010

oh just got back from bringing the corn down to the market that took me practically all day got Horace and Betsy hooked up and now my back is killing oh well I mean I was reading in them in this magazine and I mean have you ever thought about getting you know like an automobile what an automobile uh the horseless carriage something we don't need horses I have never thought of getting an automobile know how much one of your automobiles cost mr. Ford selling one for nine hundred and fifty dollar nine hundred and fifty dollars I could buy ten horses for that but I mean it's got 20 horsepower how do you put twenty horses in it well it's it's gasoline you you drive a piston with what the fire that it makes it's got fire inside it well yeah it sounds dangerous well no it's it's all contained where do you get the gasoline to power this automobile well I mean you can buy it at a you know at the drugstore so I Drive down to the gasoline store to get gasoline for my automobile right and let me just ask you this doesn't gasoline burn yeah so when I put out my cigarette at this gasoline store don't I risk blowing the whole place up well I mean maybe they just don't allow you to smoke at the gas station they don't allow you to smoke at the gas station sure or maybe they have a system where they can put out a fire if there is one Oh did mr. Ford come up with this system to put out a fire they have one well I'm just got so many cockamamie ideas from these magazines of yours that's never gonna happen it could happen why would it happen horses work just fine well alright we'll say I want to go to New York why would you want to go to New York well for the World's Fair or something it's next year say I'm gonna go there you want to go to a fair we have fairs right here in town the World's Fair where they have all sorts of Technology say I want to get there by the end of the day you want to get to New York by the end of the day right how is that supposed to happen you can do it without them ready that fast right the automobile can go 45 miles in an hour what no it can't yes no wait no see I don't know what you've been reading but there's nothing that can go that fast no horse have ever seen can go that far but you have the power 20 horses all in one horrible 20 horses can't go that fast so how about well it's like you're putting all the horses together into one horse that could run what where do you get these ideas you can put 20 horses into one horse I've it's the automobile it's the engine it uses the power to drive the car all right so let's just say you could go 45 miles an hour how would you turn in time you would smash into something right out of the farm I mean you need roads that were built for that oh yeah you would need roads who's gonna pay for the roads in fact all US taxpayers paid for road construction and just six years later the federal aid road Act of 1916 was enacted well I mean I don't know there's you know we have railroads yeah we have railroads and who paid for the railroads rich people rich men pay for the railroads are they going to build your fancy automobile roads too and then we're gonna have to pay them to use their roads I mean I know it sounds like a dumb plan I don't have all the answers but I mean I'm sure we can come up with something so you'd like to put roads throughout the entire country so you can ride your automobile on it sure it'd be faster think of all the timeline save the time you'd save going to New York to the World's Fair I mean if I wanted to I could do that if I want to do that now I'd have to take Bessie it would take me a week yeah at least a week but I mean I could I could go down there be there by tonight go the World's Fair tomorrow and be back the next day you have some crazy crazy ideas I've never heard such crazy ideas but they're not crazy all right well let me just say it could happen you've got your automobile and then on your fancy road you your automobile breaks down okay then what are you going to do because if my Bessy breaks down I get a new horse you put on by the Smiths down the road there could be places where you could go to get your automobile fixed there could be places I suppose who's going to build these places mr. Ford but I mean I'd pay to have effects so there'd be people who want to do that and so you'd have a place all over there'd be places all over the place to fix your car in fact by 1913 there would be almost half a million automobiles on the road and by the 1920s there were 60,000 service shops to fix automobiles throughout the US well sure you wouldn't need that many doesn't break down that often well let me ask you this let's say you don't break down that off and you're gonna need gasoline very often aren't you so you're going to need stations along your fancy roads throughout the entire country it sounds like you're gonna need dozens of them maybe maybe hundreds of them in fact by 1920 there would be 15,000 gas stations and by 1930 America would have over 100,000 but sure but I I'd be paying for the gasoline just like you're paying for your oats yeah so how you're going to get the gasoline to the gasoline places well if you have the roads you could have a bigger automobile like a truck and it could have a big tank full of gasoline uh did you hear what you just said a big tank full of gasoline driving on your roads sure to blow up and then you're going to store your gasoline in these places a big tank there too I suppose that's gonna blow up but I mean they it's you didn't think through any of these ideas son they sound good on paper but think about them in real world so you're gonna have these places where they sell gasoline throughout the entire country sure and how are they going to get the gasoline from the places where they pump it out of the ground to the plate don't they have to do stuff to the oil when they pump it out of the ground don't they have to refine it into gasoline so you're gonna have to have refineries everywhere you know how many gasoline refineries and pumping stations and all this stuff you're going to need to have if everyone's going to have an automobile I mean everyone's got a course now right right and we've got barns for our horses and we've got hay fields for our horses you'd have to build all this stuff for your automobiles that's never going to happen right but I mean there used to not be hay fields used to not be barns we put up the barns because it isn't worth it I don't remember when that ever happened they were take fields when I was a kid but at some point there weren't at some point we didn't ride horses and at some point there weren't barns to house the horses in and we got to a perfect situation where we got forces and barns who can beat that trains trains and automobiles I don't see it happen in my lifetime I probably not in yours either well I've already been saving up to get me a Model T polo I see saving up your $900 that you could buy 10 horses with well sure you know what I could do with 10 horses you know how many fields I could plow Jenna how many fields you could ply with a with the Model T I mean you'd need something different but it would work what some kind of horseless tractor well sure yeah yeah that'll be the day they could probably go faster wouldn't need a break Wow well it sounds good in in your magazine but I can't see how it's going to actually happen in real world it did and by 1916 just six years later the price dropped to three hundred and forty-five dollars and Zach bought his first Model T although he never saw the reason to drive to New York well I know the here rom okay well you're a young man you haven't lived long yet and you'll find out the world doesn't work the way you think it does oh just got back from Walmart I was in traffic for two hours my car almost overheated that's crazy yeah crazy because I'm paying three dollars a gallon for gas it almost ran out what Wow you know I was reading up on some articles about Tesla have you heard about Tesla are you reading on your smartphone well yes yeah have you heard about Tesla though about what a Tesla did third they're making an electric car no I haven't heard about it yeah I mean you know how it works your cars they're always so boring and stuff yeah well I mean they're making like a sexy electric car yeah how much does that cost well right now they're they have the Roadster it looks like this wow that's pretty sporty right how much is that cause though it's I mean it's really expensive right now but I mean they're going to come down in price Oh are they well okay so the the owner of Tesla's Elon Musk and he made like PayPal and and and and it has made Tesla too and he's sort of what he's saying is you're gonna ever Rhodes you know he's coming out with a roadster and then they're gonna have the Model S with the Model S so it'll be it'll be like a like us you know a little bit less of a sports car than that it will be you know kind of like a four-door car oh and is this Elon Musk gonna just make it cheaper for you that was gonna do well I mean I think he has a bigger plan of making it cheaper in the long run but so he's going to make it a very expensive car right now which is the Roadster and then he's going to make them on less and it's going to be cheaper and then you might make like an SUV then you might you know that'll still be kind of expensive but then he'll make another car that'll that everyone can afford and these are all going to be electric cars ring a one little problem with your electric Tesla idea is uh where do you get the power for these cars well I mean right now the others own electric cars just go like 50 miles and then they run out of juice well I mean that's the cool thing like the roadster can go like 200 miles Wow 200 miles right okay but my car can go more than 200 miles and then I can go another 300 miles and another 300 miles what happens when your roadster runs out juice well I mean right now you have to like stop at an RV park or charging you know like with a drier softer but you'll see that's the problem with your system is there's there is no system okay but Tesla's also thinking of they're going to have like a supercharger that will charge your car up in 20 minutes well that's nice to think about but that can't happen but it could happen I mean they've already made a car that like electric cars they're always so wimpy they're always so slow and they have such small range but like they what is this guy Elon Musk like a rocket scientist or something in fact Elon Musk is a rocket scientist as the owner of SpaceX Elon Musk was the first to envision a rocket that could launch into space and then safely land on a drone ship at sea better not tell Zach about his plans to colonize Mars just yet because it just can't happen you can't charge a car in 20 minutes what I mean what if you could yeah what if you could that would be great okay so when it when that happens call me up and I'll think about right and so then but then you could you could go from one of these places to another of these but just like a gas station I mean just like a gas station you'd pull in you charge your car for 20 minutes then you'd drive another 200 miles you'd have to have hundreds of these superchargers across the country to do that right who's going to build those I think Tesla's going to oh they're just out of the kindness of their heart they're going to build them just six years later there would be over 4,600 superchargers throughout the world allowing 160,000 Tesla owners to across the continental US from the Arctic Circle to the south of Spain and Italy and throughout China Japan and Australia well I mean they're going to be making money I mean it's it's a it's a company it's they're making prop out they're going to make money only rich people can buy your Roadster okay but I mean then when they come out with the ass like normal people be able to buy it and then and then the you know as they keep expanding as a company as a car company then they'll be able to produce cheaper and cheaper cars well it sounds good on paper again but I don't see how it's going to actually happen in real world another problem you haven't thought about is how where's all the electricity going to come from to power all these cars if you're not powering gas-powered cars anymore you have to have more electricity where you going to get more electricity from you got to burn more oil but no I mean you could have solar you could have solar on the roofs of your house wait slow down a minute you can put what under new for your house solar panels and then and then you'd have why would I put solar panels on the roof of my house so you could generate electricity you'd be almost like your own little power plant well maybe on a nice hot day like today but what about all those days when it's raining out I mean and I'm not powering my solar my electric car okay but I mean like just like the electric car has batteries you could your house could have a battery my house could have a battery right I mean the girls could be off the grid you're off the grid what are you talking about how could my house be off the grid I'm going to have like car batteries in my house no no no I mean like in this new Tesla they they don't use car batteries they use little like laptop batteries so I'm going to have a whole room full of little laptop batteries in my house that's going to power my house but to really they have a good energy density like you can fit a lot of energy in okay again this this idea of the world full of super chargers and cars that can charge in 20 minutes and cars that are affordable sounds good but it's not going to happen but oh like well like oil refineries they take so much electricity to power them they have to have huge lines running straight to them we already built that though we've got that we've got oil refineries we've got pipelines it's all there but we're going to run out of not my lifetime or not maybe in my lifetime or my children's lifetime don't you care about your grandkids I do but I just don't think it's going to happen anytime soon so why are we worried we should be worrying about it because I mean the the climate is heating up you know I mean there's global warming we're going to all all them sea levels are going to rise no I hear you I just don't see what what's going to happen anytime soon to change that but we it's already happening Tesla's already made electric car you can I mean yeah what's happening out in LA for some rich actors I suppose but it's not going to happen around here we're never gonna see a Tesla around here in fact just two years later Zak would see his first Tesla a white model last try bye ironically as he was filling up with gas at a gas station I mean the day that there's a Tesla driving on the road next to me is the day that you can say you're right but it's not going to happen it will happen what you don't understand is because you're young is that history takes a long time so maybe decades and decades from now maybe your grandkids will be driving mister I mean we had like electric cars in the 20s we had electric cars in the 20 yeah they mean they were they were above the same as we regular oil so these little smart phones of yours they give you all this information about how we had electric cars in the 20 we did they were they were you know they weren't that powerful just like a regular cars weren't you know the same schools that I went to I learned about Ford and I never heard about an electric car in the 20s Jesse's correct the first electric car debuted in the u.s. around 1890 and by 1900 electric cars accounted for one third of all vehicles on the road Henry Ford partnered with Thomas Edison to develop a low-cost electric car in 1914 but by 1935 electric cars all but disappeared right that's because they they cut them out they didn't want I mean if you can just get electricity you can get electricity for a moment anywhere it's hard to get oil from places you have to pump it out of the ground you have to refine it there's a whole lot of infrastructure that goes into it so I mean it's no I mean it sounds good like I said it sounds good from your little smart phone it sounds like a great plan it just it's not going to happen anytime soon so I can't afford it so why should I care because it means someday you will someday sure someday when I'm too old to drive these things because I won't be able to see anymore but they're also talking about like having the car drive itself see now this is where you lose me in the argument because cars are never going to drive themselves in fact just six years later Zack would be sitting in his own Model X that would drive him autonomously from Massachusetts to San Francisco and back repeat I mean there was there's already that the DARPA competition where the car drove itself through the desert there's no one sitting in it well the desert doesn't have any people in it does it so you can have your car safety but I mean Google's already working on it and and all these places they're thinking about it they're working on it they think hey there were car and the car will turn the steering wheel for you the car will turn the steering the brakes and the pedals you don't have to do anything you can just sit there well in a desert but it's not going to work on real roads why not roads are even those are desiccated and there's a lot of things going through your head when you're driving that it that can't be done by robots right but I mean a desert it's complicated because there's no roads there's no lines or anything it has to sort of figure out a good path that's why they test it because it's for the military I'm sure it'll happen you know but I mean the roads have lines you can you just use a camera and you can see where the lines are and see where the car is if you could just use a camera to drive a car then when they've done it already but I mean you could use a camera to drive a car couldn't you if I set up a camera a webcam I'm ahead and I somehow sent it to you and you were watching it at the same time right I don't know how these smart phones put all these crazy ideas in your head there's not going to be cars that drive themselves get that through your head okay and even you could drive the car from from the cameras perspective couldn't you okay so I mean why couldn't a computer do the same thing well it could but it's never going to happen so why you bothering to think about it because it will happen well I'm sure it will happen I'm not arguing that it'll probably happen a couple centuries from now when you know I'm long gone that's not going to happen soon it will happen soon okay okay you

Channel: Now You Know

Views: 178,557

Rating: 4.6876898 out of 5

Keywords: now you know, cars, tesla, model t, model x, model s, model 3, autopilot, sketch, comedy, education, climate, change, electric, EV, green energy, zac, jesse, sparky, learning, sustainable, elon, musk, now, you, know, 1910, 2010, space x, mars, arrested, development, ron, howard, history, repeats, itself, short, father and son discuss tesla, father and son, tesla history

Id: d7m6ivDvWNI

Length: 19min 40sec (1180 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 14 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/BEEF_WIENERS]

I'm 3 minutes in and suddenly realized it's 20 minutes. That feels excessive, they made their point in three minutes pretty well. Somebody want to tell me, is the last 80% of this the same as the first 20%, or is there something new worth watching there?

[u/dieabetic]

Happy cake day!

[u/quadrplax]

Could you make a shortened version? I can't imagine anyone who doesn't believe in electric cars would watch a 20 minute video explaining why they're valid.

[u/D-egg-O]

This deserves more upvotes, and happy pie day! Yes, I prefer pie over cake.

[u/TBestIG]

This is really long but it is hilarious