I made a similar argument about electric remote controlled cars on the high speed rail blog site a while back to howls of derision. Basically the aging Jerry Brown is oblivious that his calls for general adoption of electric vehicles is directly competitve with his PalmdaleRail Legacy megaproject.

Just using existing tech from PRT's and airport connector automated people mover schemes it would be possible to deploy freeway "trains" of coupled electric cars. There are all kinds of possibilities and levels of technical sophistication and complexity but it is the widespread adoption of electric propulsion that makes it all feasible.

This also applies to electric buses, urban and over the road. Light rail can survive in this climate but it will be challenged by a new generation of bustituters. Just as in 1950 streetcars are going to have to justify their higher cost up against buses because they attract more ridership.