i think your article misses the point entirely. 100 years ago, we were a different people, with different priorities. cars were not a necessity, pollution was rarely thought of, and the infrastructure didn't exist. many people of the time were perfectly happy with walking, taking the train or even riding a horse. we had bicycles, we lived in the city (when needed) and the streets were made for pedestrians.
the automobile changed history and the world, how we perceived these things, and the eventual availability of access, the sense of freedom, and the "pursuit" of a better life (not having to live in a dirty, grimy, crime-ridden city). quick and effective transportation was going to happen no matter what. availability of tech, income of the masses and word of mouth are what drove us (pun) to where we are today.
alternative to your point, what if we had made steam more efficient? water is seemingly (or at least was) a "never ending" supply. refueling would have been plain and simple. no stupid infrastructure, no awful pollutants. steam was the way of the future. the combustion engine came along as a natural progression of things. it was available tech, had a better power to weight ratio and was relatively inexpensive to product and maintain. everything else was just bolts, metal and a couple wheels. better yet, what if we had figured out a way to split hydrogen from water and created an early fuel cell? where would we be today?
electric motors have existed alongside the internal combustion engine for nearly as long. open up any electrical device from the turn of the century and you will see a grease-filled, odd environment with foreign-looking cables, huge metal contacts and lots of energy waste. i don't think BEVs are the permanent "solution" moving forward. I still believe BEVs are an interim technology, soon to be replaced with a different type of battery to power delivery system.
my follow up question to you would be this: would we have progressed as quickly with technology had petroleum not been the central motivational factor for progress. petroleum is in our rubber, plastics, fabrics, lubricants, etc., etc., i question what scientific and technological advancements we would have made had it not been such a central and pivotal point in history.
