This is going to be a little off-topic...apologies in advance.Science fiction is actually one of my favorite genres (far and away actually) but I've started to lose a lot of faith in inventors and scientists due to patent trolls/squatters, horrible government oversight, and corruption and hubris of [certain] scientists.Originally Posted by Kraco
Innovation has been utterly stifled by patent squatters. Patent reform in America needed to start a decade ago. There are companies and people out there, who file for the vaguest of inventions or innovations, and just sit on them for a decade. Once someone starts to make money off of something they actually created and developed into a viable source of income, in sweeps the patent troll to the Eastern District of Texas to file a claim. Some ridiculous percentage of claims are filed there assuming the defendants will never show up. It's finally gotten so bad that it is hard for anyone to create anything innovative because patents are so broad. "A method of converting files to a viewable format on portable devices," is an example of the language these trolls get away with. There's no specifics listed below, just this.
But my bigger problem is with government oversight, corruption, and top-heavy adminstrations. Of course this means NASA. Once the pinnacle of innovation, due to both budget constraints and admins determined to see their pet projects be the only choice, they've turned into a joke. They gone from a set one of the biggest dreamers, boldest pioneers, and quickest innovators to a bloated, stagnant organization that can't even do what they were once capable of. While the programs like Cassini and the Mars Rovers do some amazing things, manned spaceflight has become a joke. They are so set on the Constellation Program, that they won't even consider better alternatives. All of these problems the system has were solved 40 years ago, but NASA can't even duplicate what they did.
Lastly, there are things like the Space Elevator. There is a lot of progress being made to try and make this more than a pipe dream. But I don't think the state of nanotechnology will ever be good enough to create the ribbon the crawler is supposed to go up. There are plenty of alternatives to make space development cheaper and faster, like Launch loops, but the only thing that ever seems to get any press is the space elevator. There is of course tons of merit in developing things that don't ever seem feasible in today's world, that's what innovation is all about. However, there is no reason to completely ignore other viable alternatives that we could build today, though admittedly at great cost.
So to bring this back towards the topic, yes, I do think we needed alternative fuels yesterday. We could easily rebuild the electric grid once battery technology gets back up to spec (see patent troll section, or how an Oil company owns the patents to the battery out of the EV-1 all-electric vehicle) and build enough nuclear power plants (or other high-capacity, base load, non-polluting sources) to get all of the United States on functional electric vehicles.
For racing though, until we do get that battery technology down to lightweight, high-capacity alternatives, fossil fuels will still be a better choice. Everyone else that doesn't need to go 0-60 mph in 3 seconds (or even 8) should be using all-electric. RideBack only takes place in 2020. Assuming there is a war and these same problems I listed above still exist, then I wouldn't expect there to be all that much innovation (aside from the obvious inclusion of ridebacks, which were developed quickly due to their use in war and support from the government, as the episode mentioned).
/rant
A RideBack would even be easier to build if it was using electric motors. Drop the motor into or right at the wheels themselves and you can get the same arms-and-legs appearance. No need for complicated linkages or other dangerous mechanical components. Then the internal combustion engine would only serve as a generator.
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