No cars?

[Svrtnsse]

What would the world look like today if we had no cars?

To be a little bit more specific; the internal combustion engine isn't viable, due to technical, economical and magical reasons, the same for electrical engines. Let's say that I have a perfectly valid and sensible reason for why there are no cars and no engines (in reality I don't feel I do, but let's pretend anyway). What would the world look like? What's the first thing that comes to mind?

 

[Alexandra]

People would live closer together, ie no suburbs. Cars allowed for the creation of suburbia.

 

[Darkblade]

Absolutely nothing like our world at all. With out the internal combustion engine we wouldn't be able to have stepping stones to jet engines. So trains and ships will be our primary means of transportation.

Agriculture and construction as we know them depend upon tractors and other large machinery that runs on internal combustion.

 

[Penpilot]

My suggestion would be to turn back the clock to a time to before the big car boom, the late 1800 and early 1900. Then, extrapolate from there based on the rules of the world you've built. Is steam power still viable in your world? Besides walking what are the main modes of transport? And if there's magic in this world, can that be used to power vehicles?

There are tons of consequences. It will affect population density and population in general. If there's not tractor or tractor substitute to help increase food production then the world population will be affected.

It's hard to be specific without know what limits you've imposed on the world. The world may be a place exactly like early the 1900 or it may be some weird unrecognisable place. It all depends on what you decide.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Aye, it's a very non-specifc question, but your feedback (all of you) is much appreciated.

The world is meant to be at the same technological and political level as it is today. The difference is there's magic and, as mentioned, no cars.

The lack of cars is currently explained by two things; economical limitations and "critical instability". The economical limitation is what it sounds like: fuel is too expensive to be practically viable for everyday use. Critical Instability requires some explanation. Essentially what happens is that energy released repeatedly at a high frequency (like in an engine) causes the Aether (the stuff used for magic) to self-resonate which results in unpredictable magical effects.
So, even if you can afford the fuel to run an engine, doing so will usually result in the engine blowing up or freezing over or turning into cheese or something else equally undesirable.

The critical instability becomes an issue for engines running at higher RPMs (like, for example that of an average car). At lower RPMs and with the right fuels running the engine is relatively safe. Hot bulb engines like in old fishing boats are viable and can be used both in boats and tractors. From what I recall when researching this they're incapable of anything but rather low speeds though.

Electrical engines will work fine as long as there's a power source. The aether affects batteries in a way that mean they grow in size depending on how much power they need to output. Batteries for cellphones and laptops are manageable in size, whereas the battery for something like a car would be too big to be transported with said car.
This I haven't researched at all so feel free to point out if there's some plot hole I've missed. I can probably fill it by blaming it on the Aether, but I'd still like to hear it.

So while there are no cars, there are tractors, airships and trains. Lots of trains actually. Horse and cart is in use as well, but in a city it's more practical to ride a bicycle than an animal.

 

[Penpilot]

A few thoughts on this. Steam powered cars? Solar powered cars? Something doesn't ring right to me about cellphone/laptop batteries. If they can get battery small enough to run a cellphone, I'm not convinced they couldn't do the same for a car. Also, why couldn't they combine a bunch of small batteries to power a large car? So each one only outputs a small amount of energy, but combined they can do a lot.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Good questions. I'll have to have a think about that.

 

[Nihal]

My question is how they would be able to reach the technological level required to create cellphones, laptops, etc, small batteries without passing first through the "big" phase? We only need to look at the first batteries, the first computers...

Also, a small battery doesn't necessary output less energy, it stores less energy.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm pretty sure steam powered engines could be affected by critical instability as well, caused by the changes in steam pressure.
I'm unsure about solar powered cars. That may be an option in places that have enough sunlight. Still need to consider batteries a bit more.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I found the piece I'd written about batteries:

Unlike magical energy, chemical energy can be stored and converted into electrical energy when needed. However, the aether affects the conversion from chemical to electrical energy in a way such that the more energy is needed the more inefficient the process is.

The consequence of this is that batteries are practical and useful for small hand held appliances or for temporary installations where no other power source is available. Portable computers are technically possible but the batteries they require are too large and heavy for them to be practical.

The inefficiency of batteries becomes even more of an issue when it comes to larger machines. A battery powerful enough to fuel a ground vehicle would be too heavy for that vehicle to support.

It's not uncommon for batteries to be used to power the engines of airships though. As the lift of the airship isn't powered by the engine the size of the battery becomes less of an issue.

So apparently it's something magical. Feels like a bit of a cop-out as far as explanations go.

 

[Penpilot]

I'm pretty sure steam powered engines could be affected by critical instability as well, caused by the changes in steam pressure.
I'm unsure about solar powered cars. That may be an option in places that have enough sunlight. Still need to consider batteries a bit more.

There's a possibility that you're approaching this in a way that's requiring that you twist yourself into knots trying to make this 'no car' idea work. Now, I obviously don't have all the details, so I'm just forming opinions based on what's in this thread. But it feels like you're trying to force the idea of no cars into your world but trying to keep the modern stuff like computers when it doesn't necessarily fit.

IMHO, take your idea of critical instability, flesh it out as much as you can, then deal with the consequences of the rules you set up. Maybe those consequences are no cellphones or laptops. Maybe it means solar powered cars should exist. But don't force things in because it'll make your world ring false.

 

[Svrtnsse]

You're probably right. It makes sense. I guess I just had to hear it from someone else.