https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-challenge-of-replacing-internal-combustion-with-batteries-that-dont-combust/ > In 66 years—less than a lifetime—we went from a human-piloted, powered kite taking flight on a windy beach in 1903 to putting men on the moon in 1969. In decidedly less time (granted it was accelerated by the exigencies of war) the atomic bomb was developed only seven years after the 1938 discovery of nuclear fission. > And yet, the electric battery as we know it today was invented in 1800 by Alessandro Volta. Improvements to it have come slowly over the past two centuries, and this week the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it was “looking into” recurring problems of battery fires involving some Tesla vehicles, proving it’s far from a finished product.