about cars

For the 2006 Pixar film, see Cars (film). For the film franchise, see Cars (franchise). For the country, see Central African Republic. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation), CARS (disambiguation), and Automobile (disambiguation).

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Car

Cars and trucks driving on a divided highway, Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada

Classification

Vehicle

Industry

Various

Application

Transportation

Fuel source

Gasoline, electricity, diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, solar, vegetable oil

Powered

Yes

Self-propelled

Yes

Wheels

3–4

Axles

2

Inventor

Carl Benz

Invented

1886

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled motor vehicle that is used for transportation. Most definitions of cars say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.[1][2]

The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the car when German inventor Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen.[3][4][5] Cars became widely available during the 20th century. One of the first cars affordable by the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts.[6] In Europe and other parts of the world, demand for automobiles did not increase until after World War II.[6] The car is considered an essential part of the developed economy.

Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex. These include rear-reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the early 2020s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, became commercially available in the 2000s and are predicted to cost less to buy than gasoline cars before 2025.[7][8] The transition from fossil fuels to electric cars features prominently in most climate change mitigation scenarios,[9] such as Project Drawdowns 100 actionable solutions for climate change.[10]

There are costs and benefits to car use. The costs to the individual include acquiring the vehicle, interest payments (if the car is financed), repairs and maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance.[11] The costs to society include maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, healthcare, and disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life. Traffic collisions are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide.[12]

Personal benefits include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence, and convenience.[13] Societal benefits include economic benefits, such as job and wealth creation from the automotive industry, transportation provision, societal well-being from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from taxes. Peoples ability to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies.[14] There are around 1 billion cars in use worldwide. Car usage is increasing rapidly, especially in China, India, and other newly industrialized countries.[15]

Contents

1Etymology

2History

3Mass production

4Fuel and propulsion technologies

5User interface

6Electronics and interior

7Lighting

8Weight

9Seating and body style

10Safety

11Costs and benefits

12Environmental effects

13Emerging car technologies13.1Autonomous car

13.2Open source development

13.3Car sharing

14Industry

15Alternatives

16Other meanings

17See also

18Notes

19References

20Further reading

21External links

Etymology

The English word car is believed to originate from Latin carrus/carrum ”wheeled vehicle ” or (via Old North French) Middle English carre ”two-wheeled cart, ” both of which in turn derive from Gaulish karros ”chariot. ”[16][17] It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon.[18][19]

”Motor car, ” attested from 1895, is the usual formal term in British English.[2] ”Autocar, ” a variant likewise attested from 1895 and literally meaning ”self-propelled car, ” is now considered archaic.[20] ”Horseless carriage ” is attested from 1895.[21]

”Automobile, ” a classical compound derived from Ancient Greek autós (αὐτός) ”self ” and Latin mobilis ”movable, ” entered English from French and was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897.[22] It fell out of favour in Britain and is now used chiefly in North America,[23] where the abbreviated form ”auto ” commonly appears as an adjective in compound formations like ”auto industry ” and ”auto mechanic ”.[24][25] Both forms are still used in everyday Dutch (auto/automobiel) and German (Auto/Automobil).[citation needed]

History

Main article: History of the automobile

Steam Machine Of Verbiest, in 1678 (Ferdinand Verbiest)

The first working steam-powered vehicle was designed—and quite possibly built—by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65-centimetre (26 in)-long scale-model toy for the Kangxi Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.[13][26][27] It is not known with certainty if Verbiests model was successfully built or run.[27]

Cugnots 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full-scale, self-propelled mechanical vehicle or car in about 1769; he created a steam-powered tricycle.[28] He also constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.[29] His inventions were, however, limited by problems with water supply and maintaining steam pressure.[29] In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods and was of little practical use.

The development of external combustion engines is detailed as part of the history of the car but often treated separately from the development of true cars. A variety of steam-powered road vehicles were used during the first part of the 19th century, including steam cars, steam buses, phaetons, and steam rollers. In the United Kingdom, sentiment against them led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865.

In 1807, Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude created what was probably the worlds first internal combustion engine (which they called a Pyréolophore), but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France.[30] Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed his own de Rivaz internal combustion engine and used it to develop the worlds first vehicle to be powered by such an engine. The Niépces Pyréolophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium powder (dried spores of the Lycopodium plant), finely crushed coal dust and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[30] Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by internal combustion engines.[3]

Gustave Trouvés tricycle, the first ever electric automobile to be shown in public

Carl Benz, the inventor of the modern car

In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated the first working (three-wheeled) car powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris.[31] Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, the year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the car when the German Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen; he is generally acknowledged as the inventor of the car.[3][4][5]

The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept

In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle. His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 in Mannheim, Germany. He was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on 29 January 1886 (under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883). Benz began promotion of the vehicle on 3 July 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a cheaper model. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz car to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early cars, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany. In August 1888 Bertha Benz, the wife of Carl Benz, undertook the first road trip by car, to prove the road-worthiness of her husbands invention.

Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver

In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest car company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company. The first motor car in central Europe and one of the first factory-made cars in the world, was produced by Czech company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra) in 1897, the Präsident automobil.

Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and sold their first car in 1892 under the brand name Daimler. It was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, which they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz, Maybach and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each others early work. They never worked together; by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG. Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG car was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine, which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.

Carl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened, and in 1924, they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their car models jointly, although keeping their respective brands. On 28 June 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its cars Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG cars, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Carl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times, his two sons also participated in the management of the company.

Émile Levassor

Armand Peugeot

In 1890, Émile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the automotive industry in France. In 1891, Auguste Doriot and his Peugeot colleague Louis Rigoulot completed the longest trip by a gasoline-powered vehicle when their self-designed and built Daimler powered Peugeot Type 3 completed 2,100 km (1,300 miles) from Valentigney to Paris and Brest and back again. They were attached to the first Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race, but finished 6 days after the winning cyclist, Charles Terront.

The first design for an American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine was made in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York. Selden applied for a patent for a car in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on 5 November 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke car engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of cars in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.

In 1893, the first running, gasoline-powered American car was built and road-tested by the Duryea brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts. The first public run of the Duryea Motor Wagon took place on 21 September 1893, on Taylor Street in Metro Center Springfield.[32][33] The Studebaker Automobile Company, subsidiary of a long-established wagon and coach manufacturer, started to build cars in 1897[34]: p.66 and commenced sales of electric vehicles in 1902 and gasoline vehicles in 1904.[35]

In Britain, there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success, with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[36] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first gasoline-powered car in the country in 1894,[37] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs.[37] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawsons company made its first car in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler.[37]

In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a ”New Rational Combustion Engine ”. In 1897, he built the first diesel engine.[3] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s. Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazdas version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.

All in all, it is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile and motorcycle.[38]

Mass production

See also: Automotive industry

Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897.

Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903.

1927 Ford Model T

Kiichiro Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation 1941–1950

Mass production at a Toyota plant in the 1950s

The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time.

Large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable cars was started by Ransom Olds in 1901 at his Oldsmobile factory in Lansing, Michigan and based upon stationary assembly line techniques pioneered by Marc Isambard Brunel at the Portsmouth Block Mills, England, in 1802. The assembly line style of mass production and interchangeable parts had been pioneered in the U.S. by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts.[39] This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1913 with the worlds first moving assembly line for cars at the Highland Park Ford Plant.

As a result, Fords cars came off the line in fifteen-minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold, while using less manpower (from 12.5 man-hours to 1 hour 33 minutes).[40] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1913, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Fords apocryphal remark, ”any color as long as its black ”.[40] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months pay.[40]

Fords complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury.[41] The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called ”Fordism, ” and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods.

In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroën was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared.[40]

Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the worlds attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910–1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.

Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans often have heavily influenced car design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, called the General Motors Companion Make Program, so that buyers could ”move up ” as their fortunes improved.

Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other par