I thought this article pretty much backs up my narrative that the automakers have, to some extent, seen the light:
"Our model shows volatility from now till who knows when," says Roger Clark, senior manager of the Energy Center at General Motors (GM). "Maybe forever." Because the U.S. is no longer the dominant global consumer and there's no longer an excess global supply of oil, Clark says prices will likely remain unstable.
That's the usual "we kind of believe in peak oil, but we won't use the verboten term" statement.
It doesn't mean you have to love GM (I certainly don't) but you have to understand that big corporations are not the personification of evil that we sometimes think they are, always standing for denial and obfuscation. They can and do evolve as the world evolves and leadership changes. Going through bankruptcy and having a series of executive changes will naturally change the corporate culture.