Is the software industry environmentally benign?

Excerpt

A recent Wall Street Journal article by reporter Mike Ramsey characterized the electric car manufacturer Tesla as both a software company and a carmaker. Tesla will soon start to deliver wirelessly to its Model S cars a software upgrade to enable its autonomous driving on the highways. In addition, these cars will be smart enough to figure out at what point it needs to be recharged at the nearest charging station. Google’s electric car is already autonomous. It has not been sold commercially yet, but has been extensively road-tested in the United States without an incident. Google car was designed to have no steering wheel, although California regulations may force the company to introduce one for safety concerns. Airplanes have for some time been equipped with sophisticated software to cruise and land completely and safely on their own. Most product manufacturers have been increasingly dependent on powerful software to make the products easier to use, thereby increasing comfort and making user experience more versatile. The Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. has just permitted Amazon to test small drones in real world situations of package delivery, though for now, the issued permit is limited in scope. It is, however, a good start, and many other companies are anxious to create a new market for package delivery directly to the consumers. Softwares can do amazing things these days that were not imaginable a decade or two ago. …