There *IS* a serious question about how we pay for highway maintenance. Today it's through gas taxes. And that makes sense. The more you drive the more you pay. And except for lawn-mowers and mobile generators, gasoline consumption translates directly into road use.
But imagine a world with a fully-electric auto fleet (I know not coming for a very long time... but use your imagination.) Taxing electricity won't cut it, people use electricity for a LOT of other things. How should we as a society equitably apportion the cost for road maintenance to EV drivers? In California, they add a couple hundred bucks to EV registrations. But it's the same fee for all EV's. What if you don't drive much... or you drive a lot, is a flat fee still the right answer? Would you trust Elon to report your miles driven to the DMV and then pay on a per-mile basis? Looking for ideas here, since as EV drivers we are the ones who will be most impacted.