When Detroit automakers almost failed, the buzz was that Silicon Valley would become the new place to engineer environmentally-friendly vehicles in the 21st century. But a new article on VentureBeat boldly claims Detroit, not Silicon Valley, is still the right place to build the auto industry of tomorrow.
Writer John Voelcker's comprehensive list of reasons why car companies won't make it in SoCal include everything from the region's lack of trained automotive engineers to California's high cost of living and highly regulated manufacturing industry.
Excerpt:
General Motors and Ford are now hiring hundreds of engineers to work on hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles, like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and the 2012 Ford Focus Electric.
Sure, their designers and engineers visit Silicon Valley to do deals with startups
in areas like apps that will connect their cars to the world of
always-on information. But then they take the apps back home to where
cars are built.
Read more
here.
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