I've been working in automotive industry for quite a few years, read already "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" and I am interested in electrical cars and green energy. So, probably I'm not very objective here, but on the other hand, I am not a die-hard fan of Musk or Tesla.

I'm writing this text in the middle of November 2019. It might be important, because the book in question is a kind of prophecy. And it is incredible that already after one year from publishing d

I've been working in automotive industry for quite a few years, read already "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" and I am interested in electrical cars and green energy. So, probably I'm not very objective here, but on the other hand, I am not a die-hard fan of Musk or Tesla.

I'm writing this text in the middle of November 2019. It might be important, because the book in question is a kind of prophecy. And it is incredible that already after one year from publishing date you can judge if some of these prophecies are right. So... Yes, they are.

I could finish the review here, because this should be enough to make everybody read it immediately. But... Let me add some more thoughts.

The author put a lot of effort in research (reference list published at his web page is really long), which is obviously highly appreciated. The title of the book is also long, but well justified by the content. The thing really is about revolution. And it is not only about technology or transport. It is about how we understand industry, environment, our needs and lifestyles.

I liked a lot the description of pivotal moments in Tesla's history and reasons why it is so extremely difficult to build any meaningful car company. Looks like Musk succeeded with the strategy "Let's make an electrical car sexy and then we make it useful". This works so far. Together with renewable energy sources it should rule the roads sooner or later.

A long part about development of electric cars in China was necessary (2nd and 3rd best selling electric cars worldwide in 2019 are Chinese brands), but to me it could be more focused on explaining Chinese car market than on financial ups and downs of local automotive investors.

The chapter about genesis of BMW i8 and i3 is marvelous. It shows perfectly the inertia and a very-inside-the-box thinking of established car makers. By the way, I don't think that many people are aware that the electrical charging sockets are different in the cars produced for different regions. So you have North America one, European, Japan, Chinese. It is ridiculous, because we repeat the same mistake as we did with wall sockets, but that will not stop the advance of electric cars. It only shows how inefficiently automotive world works.

Autonomous cars are only mentioned at the very end of the book, but the author seems to correctly anticipate their potential and risks. Think about it: Eventually, we plan to put on the roads millions of robots carrying people inside and moving with relatively high speed in residential areas. Now compare this to current industrial robots, e.g. welding the car body. They are stationary, operate in a very limited area and never touch any human. Despite that, finally autonomous cars will be definitely safer than conventional cars. Still, numerous people will be afraid, because probably for the first time in our history we will have to practice the applicability of "Three Laws of Robotics" defined by Isaac Asimov in SF literature.

So... Any more doubts about the "revolution" in the title?