Disneyland is ditching gas cars at Autopia. It’s a great first step for Tomorrowland
The air tastes putrid. The traffic is terrible. The engines are loud, the oil-stained roadways ugly and antiquated.
This is Autopia, part of Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland, where kids from around the world come to dream about the future.
If anyone could get away with defending the toxic odor, it might be Bob Gurr. He designed the original Autopia cars in the mid-1950s, working closely with Walt himself. He’s proud of what they built together.
But today the 92-year-old Disney legend says the polluting motors need to go.
“Get rid of those God-awful gasoline fumes,” he told me.
Disney is finally preparing to do just that.
In news shared exclusively with The Times ahead of this column’s publication — after several weeks of my prodding the company for answers on the future of Autopia — Disney officials revealed that pure gasoline engines are on their way out.
“Since opening with Disneyland park in 1955, Autopia has remained a guest-favorite most popular with young kids experiencing driving for the first time,” spokesperson Jessica Good said in an email. “As the industry moves toward alternative fuel sources, we have developed a roadmap to electrify this attraction and are evaluating technology that will enable us to convert from gas engines in the next few years.”
Good wouldn’t confirm whether that means electric vehicles, or if hybrids are a possibility. EVs would obviously be better.
But whatever comes next, this is fabulous news.
And in an ideal world, it will be just the beginning for clean energy and sustainability at Tomorrowland.
Gurr feels similarly.
When I called him a few weeks before Disney revealed its plans, I didn’t know whether he’d agree with
