"Ever wonder why Detroit isn't producing 100-mpg cars," Clive Thompson asked in a recent issue of Wired Magazine. "One reason might be that the engineers there spend all their time tinkering with CAD software — developing design concepts in a purely virtual sense. They aren't ripping open cars to see what's possible the way those amateur ultra-mileage Prius hackers do (some of whom, by the way, have modded their hybrids to get 100 mpg)."
I'm not convinced that statement is entirely accurate. But the truth doesn't matter. The perception that the Motor City is an innovation wasteland is reality.
