The truth is, indifference really is a power, selectively applied, and living in such a way is not only eminently possible, with a conscious adoption of certain attitudes, but facilitates a freer, more expansive, more adventurous mode of living. Joy and grief are still there, along with all the other emotions, but they are tempered – and, in their temperance, they are less tyrannical.

Lary Wallace, Indifference Is A Power, Aeon

Inasmuch as the internal combustion engine defined the 20th century, the electric vehicle has singularly failed to capture the imagination of the 21st.

The rest of the piece is largely rubbish but this line from Leo Mirani for Quartz stuck with me all year.

…if news from CES feels especially desultory this year, it might not be the show that’s at fault. Instead, blame the tech cycle. We’re at a weird moment in the industry: The best new stuff is not all that cool, and the coolest stuff isn’t quite ready.

Farhad Manjoo, NYT, On Display at CES, Tech Ideas in Their Awkward Adolescence

Same could be said for the auto industry and transportation sector, in general

Individually, the new tools and technologies for moving around are interesting; put them together and you get something profound. Connect these new systems and individual networks to each other and they self-­assemble into a transportation super-­network. It’s decentralized, offers multiple routes from node to node, carries any kind of person or thing to any kind of place, and adjusts itself in real time.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. That’s how the Internet works.

The insufferable Adam Rogers nails it – Welcome to the Metastructure: The New Internet of Transportation, Wired