The golden era of tech in the recent past was due to the MASSIVE PUBLIC INVESTMENTS mostly pushed by the "cold war". That's is. Private led research have a target: company profits. As the capitalism tend to converge to larger and larger dominant entities the substantial innovation needed by competition disappear and all try to fake evolution to keep their dominant position. Nothing more.
We need PUBLIC research for the society, well funded, well SEPARATED by the private sector who can grab ANY idea, but can't influence in lobbying terms the public research, no revolving doors etc.
A small example: these days enough tech guys understand that we damn need integrated desktops, like the classic Xerox PARC ones, LispM ones etc so NOT countless separated apps, like containers on a ship-OS but a single one where anything is a function usable anywhere. Now see the current trend of "apps" and services who try to do more and more things because integration matter and it's not possible with systems designed to be just ships loaded with sealed containers. Did you see the comparison? Not yet? Ok, let's observe then the actual EV and PV system status:
- essentially ALL current EVs now are NMC/LFP 400V batteries.
- essentially ALL current domestic PV storage are NMC/LFP 400V batteries
- NO DAMN SYSTEM exists (except two experimental and only partial products) to integrate them so one can damn charge it's EV from the solar PV with direct surplus from the inverter MPPTs. No useless and wasteful double DC-AC-DC conversion, no fixed power charge and so on.
Why? Because there is no damn integration because those who produce PV stuff only do that, cars are made by someone else, than some car OEM try to offer complete systems (Toyota and limited Tesla) who happen BOTH to be crappy and limited because developed by people who do not have them nor know enough the whole system.
With public research researchers who design a New Deal know well ALL the parts and have no competing interests, so they'll likely end up with a fully integrate systems ONE standard not a handful and so on. The private sector of course is free to change, but having such good research for free they'll not change that much simply because it's too costly for them.
Now I think anyone can understand the comparison...
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