Not Useless. Note how far fuel-saving technology has gone since the early 70s. Yes, perhaps hybrids aren't the way of the future, but unless people take the drive and say let's do something about it, fuel efficiency's not going to happen.
Problem is a lot of these projects are just PR. Hybrid became a fashion word used to proove something to green doofuses. People are paying extra for these things because they're so buzzword compliant, meanwhile my normal Sentra gets almost the exact same gas milage. I don't have a problem with developing fuel efficiency, but not every project under the banner of efficiency is actually useful.