I have blogged a number of times about self-driving cars being the key to working out the path for oil prices and so it is important to work out if the recent pedestrian death by an Uber self-driving car is a sign that self-driving cars are further away than we expected.

Electric Car Economics

An electric car is more expensive than an oil powered car (due to the cost of the battery), but cheaper to run (oil is expensive per unit of energy, lower running costs due to fewer moving parts, less energy loss with batteries and more efficient power generation).

This means the economic calculation is about amortising the cost of the battery over the distance travelled.