I've been thinking about snake oil technology and how many billions have been spent on them without commercial success. Quantum computing - This could turn out to be a real thing but I am extremely skeptical of this technology. Nuclear fusion - I suspect this will come, eventually, but I'm not certain and think about the cost to date. And, no commercial reactor in sight. Wow. Self driving - I bought into the FSD vision of Elon Musk, way back in the day. Keep in mind, Tesla introduced AutoPilot in 2014. Tesla AutoPilot is amazing technology and I expect the problem will be solved, at some point, but the goal posts continue to move further away. Any thoughts?
I am not sure I would categorize any of this as "snake oil". For it to be snake oil, it has to be pretty much demonstrable BS sold to the gullible/ignorant. See high end audio for tons of examples. I would say the three things you listed as eventualities with a huge R&D necessity up front. All three will change the world but time and money are the name of the game right now.
