First of all, "smarter" does not mean better, as it's been shown that these new types of cars can be hacked into and taken control of from the outside. Second, there's something to be said about the good ol' gas fed engine, including power, speed, etc, AND there's nothing stopping them from getting better (unless they're already at peak possible performance, with no more innovations, which I don't think is the case). There are already extremely efficient and low emission gas-fed cars out there. Also, engines which run on diesel can even use alternative sources, such as re-used vegetable oil. On top of that, I remember watching a Japanese invention which turns plastic garbage into different grades of useable fuel... add that to your car and help clean up the streets
Thirdly, fully electric cars, as well as hybrids seem to be getting better, including in speed. The concept is nice, particularly if you combine it with self-sufficient means, such as solar power, or perhaps even generating electricity while coasting downhill, etc. and they could be made to plug into a variety of power sources, I imagine. There are a number of electric generators and fuel cells which could be used to help power an electric car without needing to stop at a refueling station (such as, perhaps, bloom energy fuel cells). Fourthly, electric cars, as cool as they are, and with all the potential they could hold, and all the different options they could have, are not the only other alternatives to gas-fed engines. Way back in the day they had wood-powered cars using a wood gas generator for gasification. Perhaps you could even add onto this concept with a gasifier that takes any organic material and harvests gas from it... your left-over turkey carcass, extra-carb burger buns, or the garbage from your last fast food meal. Combined with the plastic to oil device mentioned above, you might be able to run a fuel/gas-powered car off of bags of garbage
Electric gyrobuses are a thing, where the flywheel is used to store electric energy - in hill countries, the downhill parts can respin the gyroscope, the stored energy of which can be used to take it up the next hill. To my understanding, they do need to be recharged every now and then - how frequently, I don't know, which can be done with overhead chargers at every bus stop. Then there are compressed air-powered engines (of which I currently know of two different designs) - imagine stopping at the gas station and using the air compressor to fill up your engine... or, imagine having an onboard air-compressor which could either be powered via different electric generators, like solar, and/or with the mechanical energy or electric generation from downhill movement, and/or even the energy which can be garnished from things like heat from the brakes. Ideas ideas. Then there's also the idea of the Thorium-fueled, nuclear-powered car... which could run for a very long time without refueling - however, I believe this may still be just a concept, and there are some who say the idea is nonsense. There is even the claim by some, that they have managed to create water-powered engines (or perhaps re-purpose their old engines to use water) for their own vehicles. While claims like this may be taken with some skepticism, let's remember that water is in fact composed of two flammable and even explosive elements (at least on Earth) - hydrogen and oxygen, and there are people who have at least complemented their fuel supply with hydrogen generators based on this fact (one should be extremely careful with this, however, and make sure safety mechanisms are in place.
Maybe even mechanical pedal power, or electrical generation from a flywheel, electric generator, and pedal power, could also be used in combination with some of the above. Maybe even just a bicycle car
or hybrid
Just some ideas to consider, overall big fans of the electric car concept here at Cyberius.
The Cyberius team.
