Someone here knows what a PDP-1 is! I doubt the Chevy owner could have afforded the electricity bill for a PDP-1, which required programming bit-by-bit. It had no operating system.
Just lost my 98 Taurus to a small fire started by a backfire when unburned fuel was in the air intake. I would have kept it for another fifteen years. For older cars (Taurus stopped selling the oval design in 2007), you can't find new parts. Junkyards are an adventure I'd rather not experience again.
Pickup trucks seem to have changed little, and Chevys along with Fords were built the old way. Time, however, is money. I've heard that Prius taxis are going 300,000 in city driving changing the business model for Toyota, and for used car dealers. Not so good for long commutes, and bad if not used for a month or two. Batteries need activity daily for best performance. But that problem too will be solved.
The efficiency of petroleum energy to power conversion is still better than that of electric power generated by whatever, and stored chemically, as nice and quiet as electric cars are. The hydrocarbons were burned away from most of our highways. Only nuclear generation today offers a true clean air solution, and activists have all but killed new nuclear generation in the U.S.
China is on track to build about one hundred thirty nuclear plants during the next ten years. China badly needs to improve its air quality. Its rise to the world's largest economy along with largest manufacturer should make the investment possible, since the cost for power plants, including nuclear is usually amortized in three to four years. China is one of few countries with the foundries capable of manufacturing nuclear pressure vessels.