Also horses that could run at 100mph for 5 hours at a time would be far better than early cars. They run on clean renewable fuel, have built in natural intelligence to avoid crashes and carry drunk drivers, and come in a variety of pleasing colors (not just black!).
The main benefit of cars was that if you delay maintenance your transportation doesn’t die.
Do you mean from cars or horses? If the former, early automobiles were far cleaner than the animals they replaced (and still are). Cities faced huge issues with animal excrement and cars represented a cleaner alternative.
Obviously you can't do such a simplistic direct comparison between horse emissions and car emissions. How does leaded petrol play into this comparison, particulates, etc.
You're totally right, my comment was far too simplistic. However it captures the feelings at the time, cars at that time were far "cleaner" in that they smelled a lot better, did not clog streets with excrement etc
Obviously play the car out a few decades and the emissions were _not_ so clean.
Have people not seen any sci fi with self replicating mechanicals? It never goes well. Humans wouldn't be around for very long to remember anything at all.
The main benefit of cars was that if you delay maintenance your transportation doesn’t die.