Is Technology the Key?

The Japan Times has an article on Toyota North America President Jim Press who said that technology is key to solving the auto industry's problems.

Speaking at a luncheon where he was honored as automotive executive of the year, he said Detroit remains the epicenter for the kinds of "technological solutions" needed to solve the industry's long-term challenges, including global warming, safety and energy security.

For some reason, this just rubs me the wrong way. That's it? Technology is the solution? What technology? His remark strikes me as nothing more than wishful thinking. He may as well have told eveyone that the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus will make things right.

And when he mentions global warming and energy security, does he realize that the automobile industry is the problem? Instead of a society that subverts itself to the automobile, we need more people-friendly cities and towns. Place that are walkable and bikeable.

What technology he's talking about isn't clear. Coal? Corn ethanol? Hydrogen? The problem is that technology isn't energy. If any company is going to take on global warming and energy security, they need to understand this distinction.