Auto Industry Has a Glamorous Past, But Opaque Future

Detroit — Bending metal, slapping on chrome, and marketing an empowering product and status marker that mesmerized 20th-century America, the automobile industry typified the Old Economy, of which General Motors was emblematic. As was its bankruptcy. Today, GM's CEO Mary Barra is wagering that the industry soon will be manufacturing New Economy products. They will incorporate technologies that will entice buyers whose sensibilities and expectations have been shaped by the kind of empowerment delivered by their smartphones, which arrived just ten years ago. GM's electric self-starter, which replaced hand cranks, was the last century's most transformative innovation ...