The anecdote about Edison setting the electric car business back by overselling a defective battery solution is interesting. I still think the $2,000 electric car is a hard sell against a $850 Model-T unfortunately. I also thought it was amusing to call a steering wheel "un-ladylike" compared to a tiller arrangement. I think that's more just early vehicles not standardizing on controls and in this case the maker guessed wrong, but they were hardly alone. The late 19th/early 20th century vehicles were full of wacky and confusing control systems.

The steering wheels of the era had a straight steering shaft that the driver had to straddle between their legs. They were considered unladylike for the same reason as bicycles. This was still an era where women competed in horse jumping competitions while riding sidesaddle to protect their modesty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Stace

The early 20th century was a time when women no longer wanted to be ladies. They wanted to travel on their own wearing more comfortable clothes and even -gasp- have jobs.