10 World-Changing Inventions People Thought Were Useless
6. Cars
"The ordinary “horseless carriage” is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle."Literary Digest, 1899
Given what we know about cars and the environment now, perhaps it would have been better if we'd all stuck to bicycles.
Aside from their role in building the vibrant global economy that we have today, and enabling us the geographical freedom to do more than remain in the town in which we were born. Apart from that.
People have had lots of concerns about cars over the years, and there was plenty of hand-wringing regarding the dangers of a vehicle moving at (gasp) 20 mph (despite the fact that the top speed of a horse is about 30 mph)
"The dangers are obvious. Stores of gasoline in the hands of people interested primarily in profit would constitute a fire and explosive hazard of the first rank. Horseless carriages propelled by gasoline might attain speeds of 14 or even 20 miles per hour. The menace to our people of vehicles of this type hurtling through our streets and along our roads and poisoning the atmosphere would call for prompt legislative action even if the military and economic implications were not so overwhelming... [T]he cost of producing [gasoline] is far beyond the financial capacity of private industry... In addition the development of this new power may displace the use of horses, which would wreck our agriculture."U. S. Congressional Record, 1875
I mean, to be fair, they're not exactly wrong, but cars are still pretty great.
Sadly, our obsession with the automobile appears to have robbed us of a glittering future in which we all buzz around in personal helicopters:
"Automobiles will start to decline almost as soon as the last shot is fired in World War II. The name of Igor Sikorsky will be as well known as Henry Ford's, for his helicopter will all but replace the horseless carriage as the new means of popular transportation. Instead of a car in every garage, there will be a helicopter.... These 'copters' will be so safe and will cost so little to produce that small models will be made for teenage youngsters. These tiny 'copters, when school lets out, will fill the sky as the bicycles of our youth filled the prewar roads."Harry Bruno, aviation publicist, 1943