Is this where I'm supposed to argue that the automobile's insatiable appetite for petroleum makes us extremely vulnerable. Civilization is at the mercy of foreign governments or enviroterrorist cutting off the supply. At the same time this technology is so unimportant that we should abandon it. Isn't it worth abandoning Sunday drives and trips to the corner store in order to save civilization?

(Incidentally, there is a difference between the invention of the car and many other modes of transportation that rely upon the internal combustion engine. For the most part, cars are personal transportation devices that we could do without. Other types of vehicle have far more utility. Now the car is something that society could probably do without. Yes, it would take some time to adjust to. The car has made too many alterations to the design of cities and the functioning of society to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Yet once those changes have been made, urban infrastructure would be cheaper to maintain because there would be far less frivolous abuses of it.)