The biggest business story of the past year is not artificial intelligence, but the success and proliferation of the Chinese car industry.

If you’re following the latest AI news… The industry is running out of data to train its systems on. Promised breakthroughs are being pushed into the future. AI is a sexy subject, whose mania is primarily based on fear (isn’t it funny that we no longer hear about restricting AI?) Are the machines here to replace us? Well, right now they can’t always get it right and there are debates as to how much they will aid productivity and…

Chinese cars have obliterated their competitors in their home country and are now invading the rest of the world, decimating other companies in their wake.

Meanwhile, all we hear from western governments is protection, taxes, but the auto manufacturers themselves want to compete, it’s the only way they can survive. Many have invested heavily in electric cars and if the public doesn’t start buying them in quantity, they’re in trouble.

So, electric cars are kinda like digital photography. It was coming, it was coming, but it never arrived, Kodak continue to triumph and then in what seemed no longer than a year, the switch flipped. Ditto on personal computers… They were around for years, no one saw the need for them, and then the killer app came along known as AOL and everybody had to own a computer to play online.

Note. Nothing is forever. All those independent computer manufacturers of the late nineties, the kids in the basement constructing PCs out of parts, that’s history. Just like the hardware rage of the first decade of this century, with the iPod and iPhone and… Today it’s all about software. As Marc Andreessen claimed, software is eating the world.

And software is running your car. And VW, with a head start, still can’t get its software right.

Now there are some that say Chinese car manufacturers got incentives and support from their government. The devil is in the details. I read something in the WSJ claiming the opposite. But that’s all history, now the cars have arrived.

And sure, western manufacturers had their technology “stolen” as the price of entering China, they had to operate with Chinese corporations, and now China knows how to build cars, but when it comes to EVs, they’re ahead of the pack. We can debate whether Tesla has better software, but in truth Chinese manufacturers update their models at light speed, oftentimes in a year, whereas we’re still purchasing (or not purchasing), Elon Musk’s S3XY originals to this day (along with the loved/hated Cybertruck, which has not met sales expectations).

Now America may ultimately be saved because of Musk’s power over Trump. Trump flipped on H-1B visas, as he should have. In truth, by restricting immigration, America has fostered tech innovation in Asia. All those South Asian engineers who couldn’t stay in America, they’ve become entrepreneurs in India. So maybe Musk will have Trump proselytizing about electric cars.

But right now myopic Americans are unaware of how good Chinese cars are. However if you’re on the dreaded social media, you’ll see them. And wow!

And it’s not only EVs, it’s hybrids too. You’d want one, if one were available.

It’s akin to the Japanese car invasion of the seventies. Seen as junk in the late sixties, by the end of the decade the perception had flipped. Japanese cars were more reliable than those from Detroit, they lasted longer. Remember when the debate was whether Toyota would eclipse General Motors as the world’s biggest car producer? Well, that battle is long in the rearview mirror.

But the difference here is Japan just did a better job of what Detroit was already doing, whereas China is doing something brand new.

As a matter of fact, Toyota is behind the 8-ball. In pursuit of profits Toyota pushed EV development down the line, and now the company is playing catch-up.

And the big news recently is the merger of Honda and Nissan. Honda? One of the most revered automakers in America? People swear by their Hondas. Nissan might have issues, but Honda?

They both have issues, they can’t compete with the Chinese. They’re combining for efficiency and the resources needed to create the cars of the future.

And the Honda Nissan tie-up has been all over the business pages of the mainstream media.

However the mainstream media has been excoriated to the point where most of the public is uninformed on major issues, they’re in their silos, only hearing news that makes them feel good.

Saving coal? It’s already been decimated. Energy companies have moved on.

And sure, the libs were the first to buy electric cars, but all the negative press about EVs in America is only hurting us.

We cannot go backward, we can only go forward to compete. Never mind that China has so many people. And the EU is on the forefront of tech regulation, and they don’t always get it right, but at least they’re looking at the problem.

We’ve become moribund in America, involved in our petty wars. About language, labels, DEI… And I’m not saying these are not important issues, but our population agrees on more than it disagrees on, and we need to be brought together so we can fight the challenges of the twenty first century.

Our nation needs to invest, support big tech and other industrial companies. Otherwise, our companies are going to be decimated, like the steel industry in the last century. We can whine all day long about Chinese government incentives, but you can’t argue with reality, the juggernaut that is the Chinese car industry, based on EVs and hybrids.

We need to return to the days of the space program that put a man on the moon, with its attendant technological breakthroughs.

We might need more government, not less. In order to compete.

You’ll be driving an electric car, it’s just a matter of when. As a matter of fact, if you truly wanted to support America, you’d buy an electric car today, hopefully from GM or Ford, who don’t want the Trump government to go back to the past with gas mileage rules, they can see the future, and it’s turning Chinese!

America may be the greatest country in the world, but it’s not the only country in the world, and it’s not number one in every category.

If we truly want to make America great again we will forgo that canard of returning to the past and take a great leap forward.

Otherwise, you’ll soon be driving a BYD.

Which most people have never even heard of.

But they’ve heard of Warren Buffett, who invested in the company.

We need a national reset of the mind. We can’t be afraid of the future, we’ve got to embrace it. ALL OF US!