In Search of a Better Place

A world that powers cars by electricity can be discovered in San Jose next week at Plug-In 2010.

And if you’re in the neighborhood, it’s worth it to swing by the San Jose Convention Center Tuesday night, the 27th, when the show opens to the public.

Among the sponsors are Better Place, whose visitors center in Israel I had the privilege to explore a couple of weeks ago. When I say explore, I mean you literally get to drive the electric cars on a sandy track and let me tell you something, the car just glides.

Here are some photos of yours truly at Better Place.

 And here I am driving:

The fact that I veered slightly off the road has to do with my driving, not the engineering. Hey, at least I admit it.

And here you can see how the battery recharging works — a process that takes only a few minutes for the depleted battery to pop out and a charged one to take its place:

The facility is a very cool sci-fi experience that spans from the virtual to the real thing, as you can see.

The virtual experience is showcased in a film watched from sporty car seats designed for Better Place’s newest model. And Shai Agassi, the company CEO, materializes in 3D form through a thin screen to welcome us into this brave, new world.

I wish him the best of luck in this worthy endeavor. EVs are certainly a key element in the solution to move off oil and use our resources wisely.