I think there’s huge interest in automotive innovation. But, as long as we have $50 billion dollar bailouts of the existing auto industry, there’s no motivation to innovate. Why would I want to throw my money into making a cheaper, more efficient car, when the established competition will just go to the government and get a subsidy to sell their older tech at the same price?

This is the problem that crippled Japan’s economy for years — the government propping up failed zombie companies with zero interest loans. As long as we continue to support failed businesses and have protectionist economic policies, throwing more money at R&D won’t do a damn thing.

I think there’s also a separate problem of R&D dollars going to bureaucratic institutions like NASA that have all but lost their ability to innovate, but that’s a far smaller issue.