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White 10 (1:28)
Topic(s): Auto Industry / Car Culture / Renewable
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Video Transcript
I think the auto industry has a huge cognitive dissonance
issue that it has to- that it struggles with every day. You
know, on the one hand I think that there are people within all
of the big auto companies who, if they could figure out how
to, in a competitive way, bring out cars that basically ran on
water or ran- got a hundred miles to the gallon, or any of
that stuff, they would do it tomorrow. I mean, why not? I
think they're sincere when they say that.
Then there's the marketing department, which comes in and
basically says, "Look, folks, you know, the old values still
apply." What people want out of a car or a truck is they want
power, they want a feeling of mastery, they want a feeling
that they are, you know, the king of the road, they want a
feeling they can go anywhere and do anything, ultimate
capability, even if, you know, look, 95 percent of us use
whatever it is that we buy to go to and from work and to and
from shopping at speeds well under sixty miles an hour because
of the congestion.
You know, that's just the way it is. But that's not romantic
and that's not profitable. So I think there is this real kind
of, it's cognitive dissonance because they all kind of know
better but, you know, sex sells, power sells, you know, big
sells, to some people and it's hard to give that up, it's hard
to give that up.
