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Comment by mooktakim | Hacker News Reader

How did we get petrol cars without already having petrol stations everywhere??

Spare gas cans can get you hundreds of miles. When I was growing up this was super common for long road trips just because gas stations usually closed at night and there weren’t credit card readers for 24 hour pumps.

I'm talking about 100 years ago when cars were invented. We didn't stop and wait for the infrastructure to be ready. We built it, got it out there. Everything else will come when and as we need it.

Early car adopters probably were range conscious as hydrogen car owners today like me are .

Built it and it will come doesn’t always work for the early adopters, early investment in a technology can be risky it might take longer than expected or some other tech might replace the current front runner.

Gasoline powered cars weren’t the only tech in early 1900s either, steam powered cars were being as late as 1930s.

The diesel and petrol engines were competing too, very different kinds of engines and fuels

You could literally stop at a hardware store or pharmacy to buy a can of gasoline. It didn't need dedicated fueling infrastructure.

How did the hardware stores store the fuel, how many time a day did they get delivery, what were the distribution networks? Those questions didn’t get answered overnight, yet the car industry didn’t wait until all of the components were in place. It will be the same with EVs

What are you talking about? The whole point is that you can buy a spare 10-20 gallons of gas and take it with you. And the technology (a metal can) existed long before cars.

Gas cans (a.k.a. cans) existed before cars were invented. The point is that additional range was a trivial pre-existing technology.

It was common to carry containers of gas when traveling cross-country (USA) in the 1930s (source: my grandparents). I don’t know the size but would guess several 5-gallon containers would do it.

It probably mirrored how some of the alternative fuels are setup today like hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles

California has around 45 hydrogen pumps I am always aware where my car can go and not , and the dynamics change every time a pump comes up or shuts down

The pattern of gas pumps probably looked similar to how hydrogen pumps are distributed today - Most clustered in urban areas of SF bat and LA with some in smaller centers like scaremento and rest scattered on high traffic key road ways between them like the one on I5 .

And if you got fuel stranded you are going to pay a lot for someone to bring fuel by traditional means to you - horse drawn then, towing now

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