   #copyright

Automobile

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Road transport

   Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) - entered into the first automobile
   race
   Enlarge
   Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) - entered into the first automobile
   race

   An automobile (or motor car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that
   carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that
   automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for
   one to seven people, typically have four wheels and be constructed
   principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the
   term is far from precise.

   As of 2002 there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one
   car for every eleven people), of which 140 million in the U.S. (roughly
   one car for every two people). .

History

   An automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine was invented in
   Germany by Karl Benz in 1885. Benz was granted a patent dated 29
   January 1886 in Mannheim for that automobile. Even though Benz is
   credited with the invention of the modern automobile, several other
   German engineers worked on building automobiles at the same time. In
   1886, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart patented the
   first motor bike, built and tested in 1885, and in 1886 they built a
   converted horse-drawn stagecoach. In 1870, German-Austrian inventor
   Siegfried Marcus assembled a motorized handcart, though Marcus' vehicle
   did not go beyond the experimental stage.

                           Automobile history eras
   1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
         Veteran Brass or Edwardian Vintage Pre-War Post-War Modern
                                   Antique
                                   Classic

Internal combustion engine powered vehicles

   Animation of a 4-stroke overhead-cam internal combustion engine
   Enlarge
   Animation of a 4-stroke overhead-cam internal combustion engine

   In 1806 François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss, designed the first internal
   combustion engine (sometimes abbreviated "ICE" today). He subsequently
   used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine
   that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy. The
   design was not very successful, as was the case with the British
   inventor, Samuel Brown, and the American inventor, Samuel Morey, who
   produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines about
   1826.

   Etienne Lenoir produced the first successful stationary internal
   combustion engine in 1860, and within a few years, about four hundred
   were in operation in Paris. About 1863, Lenoir installed his engine in
   a vehicle. It seems to have been powered by city lighting-gas in
   bottles, and was said by Lenoir to have "travelled more slowly than a
   man could walk, with breakdowns being frequent." Lenoir, in his patent
   of 1860, included the provision of a carburettor, so liquid fuel could
   be substituted for gas, particularly for mobile purposes in vehicles.
   Lenoir is said to have tested liquid fuel, such as alcohol, in his
   stationary engines; but it does not appear that he used them in his own
   vehicle. If he did, he most certainly did not use gasoline, as this was
   not well-known and was considered a waste product.

   The next innovation occurred in the late 1860s, with Siegfried Marcus,
   a German working in Vienna, Austria. He developed the idea of using
   gasoline as a fuel in a two-stroke internal combustion engine. In 1870,
   using a simple handcart, he built a crude vehicle with no seats,
   steering, or brakes, but it was remarkable for one reason: it was the
   world's first vehicle using an internal combustion engine fueled by
   gasoline. It was tested in Vienna in September of 1870 and put aside.
   In 1888 or 1889, he built a second automobile, this one with seats,
   brakes, and steering, and included a four-stroke engine of his own
   design. That design may have been tested in 1890. Although he held
   patents for many inventions, he never applied for patents for either
   design in this category.

   The four-stroke engine already had been documented and a patent was
   applied for in 1862 by the Frenchman Beau de Rochas in a long-winded
   and rambling pamphlet. He printed about three hundred copies of his
   pamphlet and they were distributed in Paris, but nothing came of this,
   with the patent application expiring soon afterward and the pamphlet
   disappearing into obscurity.

   Most historians agree that Nikolaus Otto of Germany built the world's
   first four-stroke engine although his patent was voided. He knew
   nothing of Beau de Rochas's patent or idea, and invented the concept
   independently. In fact, he began thinking about the concept in 1861,
   but abandoned it until the mid-1870s.

   In 1883, Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Leon Malandin of France
   installed an internal combustion engine powered by a tank of city gas
   on a tricycle. As they tested the vehicle, the tank hose came loose,
   resulting in an explosion. In 1884, Delamare-Deboutteville and Malandin
   built and patented a second vehicle. This one consisted of two
   four-stroke, liquid-fueled engines mounted on an old four-wheeled horse
   cart. The patent, and presumably the vehicle, contained many
   innovations, some of which would not be used for decades. However,
   during the vehicle's first test, the frame broke apart, the vehicle
   literally "shaking itself to pieces," in Malandin's own words. No more
   vehicles were built by the two men. Their venture went completely
   unnoticed and their patent unexploited. Knowledge of the vehicles and
   their experiments was obscured until years later.

Production of automobiles begins

   Karl Benz
   Enlarge
   Karl Benz
   Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1886
   Enlarge
   Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1886

   Internal combustion engine automobiles were first produced in Germany
   by Karl Benz in 1885-1886, and Gottlieb Daimler between 1886-1889.

   Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. At first he
   concentrated on creating a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on
   Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine. A patent on the
   design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his engine on New
   Year's Eve and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Benz built his
   first three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in
   Mannheim, dated January of 1886. This was the first automobile designed
   and built as such, rather than a converted carriage, boat, or cart.
   Among other items Benz invented are the speed regulation system known
   also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark
   plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator. He built
   improved versions in 1886 and 1887 and went into production in 1888:
   the world's first automobile production. His wife, Bertha, made
   significant suggestions for innovation that he included in that model.
   Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first
   four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines
   of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz
   engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of
   products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more
   were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.

   In 1886 Gottlieb Daimler fitted a horse carriage with his four-stroke
   engine. In 1889, he built two vehicles from scratch as automobiles,
   with several innovations. From 1890 to 1895 about thirty vehicles were
   built by Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, either at the
   Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after
   falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler, seem to have been
   unaware of each other's early work and worked independently. Daimler
   died in 1900. During the First World War, Benz suggested a co-operative
   effort between the two companies, but it was not until 1926 that the
   they united under the name of Daimler-Benz with a commitment to remain
   together under that name until the year 2000.

   In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing
   vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor
   industry in France. They were inspired by Daimler's Stahlradwagen of
   1889, which was exhibited in Paris in 1889.

   The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine
   supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester,
   New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. Selden did
   not build an automobile until 1905, when he was forced to do so, due to
   a lawsuit threatening the legality of his patent because the subject
   had never been built. After building the 1877 design in 1905, Selden
   received his patent and later sued the Ford Motor Company for
   infringing upon his patent. Henry Ford was notorious for opposing the
   American patent system and Selden's case against Ford went all the way
   to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ford, and anyone else, was free
   to build automobiles without paying royalties to Selden, since
   automobile technology had improved so significantly since the design of
   Selden's patent, that no one was building according to his early
   designs.

   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. One of the major problems was the poor state of
   the road network. Santler from Malvern is recognised by the Veteran Car
   Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol powered car in
   the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895
   but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles came from
   the Daimler Motor Company founded in 1896 and making their first cars
   made in 1897.

Innovation

   Ford Model T, 1927
   Enlarge
   Ford Model T, 1927

   Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, a French inventor, is credited for having built
   the world's first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in
   1765. The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to
   Oliver Evans in 1789 for his "Amphibious Digger". It was a harbour
   dredge scow designed to be powered by a steam engine and he built
   wheels to attach to the bow. In 1804 Evans demonstrated his first
   successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first
   automobile in the US but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his
   steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land as he
   demonstrated once, and via a paddle wheel in the water. It was not
   successful and eventually was sold as spare parts.

   The Benz Motorwagen, built in 1885, was patented on 29 January 1886 by
   Karl Benz as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion
   engine. In 1888, a major breakthrough came when Bertha Benz drove an
   automobile that her husband had built for a distance of more than 106
   km (about 65 miles). This event demonstrated the practical usefulness
   of the automobile and gained wide publicity, which was the promotion
   she thought was needed to advance the invention. The Benz vehicle was
   the first automobile put into production and sold commercially. Bertha
   Benz's historic drive is celebrated as an annual holiday in Germany
   with rallies of antique automobiles.

   In 1892 Rudolf Diesel got a patent for a "New Rational Combustion
   Engine" by modifying the Carnot Cycle. And in 1897 he built the first
   Diesel Engine.

   On 5 November 1895, George B. Selden was granted a United States patent
   for a two-stroke automobile engine ( U.S. Patent 549160). This patent
   did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the United
   States. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for
   decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance
   in the 1910s.
   Ransom E. Olds, the creator of the first automobile assembly line
   Enlarge
   Ransom E. Olds, the creator of the first automobile assembly line

   The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable
   automobiles was debuted by Ransom Eli Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in
   1902. This assembly line concept was then greatly expanded by Henry
   Ford in the 1910s. Development of automotive technology was rapid, due
   in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the
   world's 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.

   Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to
   compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only
   Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited
   success.

Model changeover and design change

   Since the 1920s nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market
   needs, so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile
   design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different
   makes of cars produced by one firm, so that buyers could "move up" as
   their fortunes improved. The makes shared parts with one another so
   that the larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each
   price range. For example, in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors,
   roof, and windows with Pontiac; the LaSalle of the 1930s, sold by
   Cadillac, used the cheaper mechanical parts made by the Oldsmobile
   division.

Production statistics

   In 2005, 63 million cars and light trucks were produced worldwide.
   Top 15 Motor Vehicle Producing Countries 2005
   Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Production (1,000 units)
   1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000 11,000
   12,000
   United States 11,524
   Japan 10,064
   Germany 5,543
   China 5,067
   South Korea 3,657
   France 3,495
   Spain 2,677
   Canada 2,624
   Brazil 2,375
   United Kingdom 1,783
   Mexico 1,607
   India 1,406
   Russia 1,264
   Thailand 1,110
   Italy 995




   References:
     * World Motor Vehicle Production by Country and Type: Cars 2004 -
       2005. OICA.
     * World Motor Vehicle Production by Country and Type: Light
       Commercial Vehicles 2004 - 2005. OICA.

   Large free trade areas like EU, NAFTA and MERCOSUR attract
   manufacturers worldwide to produce their products within them reducing
   currency risks and customs controls and additionally being close to
   their customers. Thus the production figures do not show the
   technological ability or business skill of the areas. In fact much, if
   not most, of Third World countries car production uses Western
   technology and car models and sometimes complete Western factories are
   shipped to such countries. This is reflected in patent statistics as
   well as the location of R&D centers.

   The automobile industry is dominated by relatively few large
   corporations (not to be confused with the much more numerous brands),
   the biggest of which (by numbers of cars produced) are currently
   General Motors, Toyota and Ford Motor Company. It is expected that
   Toyota will reach the No.1 position in 2009. The most profitable
   per-unit car-maker of recent years has been Porsche due to its premium
   price tag
   Top 15 Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Companies by Volume 2005
   Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Production (1,000 units)
   1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000
   General Motors 9,040
   Toyota 7,100
   Ford 6,418
   Volkswagen Group 5,173
   DaimlerChrysler 4,319
   PSA Peugeot Citroën 3,375
   Honda 3,373
   Nissan 3,348
   Hyundai-Kia Motors 2,853
   Renault-Dacia-Samsung 2,617
   Suzuki-Maruti 2,072
   Fiat 1,934
   Mitsubishi 1,327
   BMW 1,323
   Mazda 1,285
   Total global production: 67,265



   Reference:
     * World motor vehicle production by manufacturer: World ranking 2005.
       OICA (June 2006).

Future of the car

   The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by
   Toyota in 2005
   Enlarge
   The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by
   Toyota in 2005

   There have been many efforts to innovate automobile design funded by
   the NHTSA, including the work of the NavLab group at Carnegie Mellon
   University. Recent efforts include the highly publicized DARPA Grand
   Challenge race.

   Relatively high transportation fuel prices do not significantly reduce
   car usage but do make it more expensive. One environmental benefit of
   high fuel prices is that it is an incentive for the production of more
   efficient (and hence less polluting) car designs and the development of
   alternative fuels. At the beginning of 2006, 1 liter of gasoline cost
   approximately $0.60 USD in the United States and in Germany and other
   European countries nearly $1.80 USD. With fuel prices at these levels
   there is a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller,
   more fuel-efficient cars. Greenpeace, however, demonstrated with the
   highly fuel efficient SmILE that car manufacturers aren't delivering
   what they could and thus not supplying for any such demand .
   Nevertheless, individual mobility is highly prized in modern societies
   so the demand for automobiles is inelastic. Alternative individual
   modes of transport, such as Personal rapid transit, could serve as an
   alternative to automobiles if they prove to be cheaper and more energy
   efficient.
   Lexus LF-A concept car at the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show
   Enlarge
   Lexus LF-A concept car at the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show

   Electric cars operate a complex drivetrain and transmission would not
   be needed. However, despite this the electric car is held back by
   battery technology - a cell with comparable energy density to a tank of
   liquid fuel is a long way off, and there is no infrastructure in place
   to support it. A more practical approach may be to use a smaller
   internal combustion (IC) engine to drive a generator- this approach can
   be much more efficient since the IC engine can be run at a single
   speed, use cheaper fuel such as diesel, and drop the heavy, power
   wasting drivetrain. Such an approach has worked very well for railway
   locomotives, but so far has not been scaled down for car use.

Alternative technologies

   The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric
   car.
   Enlarge
   The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric
   car.

   Increasing costs of oil-based fuels and tightening environmental laws
   with the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas
   emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for
   automobiles.

   Many diesel-powered cars can run with little or no modifications on
   100% pure biodiesel. The main benefit of Diesel combustion engines is
   its 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 23% in the best gasoline
   engines. Most modern gasoline engines are capable of running with up to
   15% ethanol mixed into the gasoline fuel - older vehicles may have
   seals and hoses that could be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of
   redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations
   as high as 85%. 100% ethanol is used in some parts of the world using
   vehicles that must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to
   ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline fuelled cars can also
   run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and
   carburation modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic
   emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to
   operate inside buildings.

   The first electric cars were built in the late 1800s, prior to
   combustion engine automobiles, nevertheless attempts at building
   viable, modern battery-powered electric vehicle began with the
   introduction of the first modern ( transistor controlled) electric car.

   Current research and development is centered on " hybrid" vehicles that
   use both electric power and internal combustion. Research into
   alternative forms of power also focus on developing fuel cells,
   Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), and even using the
   stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.

   Alternative forms of combustion such as Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI)
   are starting to appear in production vehicles. GDI is employed in the
   2007 BMW MINI.

Design

   The 1955 Citroën DS; revolutionary visual design and technological
   innovation.
   Enlarge
   The 1955 Citroën DS; revolutionary visual design and technological
   innovation.

   The design of modern cars is typically handled by a large team of
   designers and engineers from many different disciplines. As part of the
   product development effort the team of designers will work closely with
   teams of design engineers responsible for all aspects of the vehicle.
   These engineering teams include: chassis, body and trim, powertrain,
   electrical and production. The design team under the leadership of the
   design director will typically comprise of an exterior designer, an
   interior designer (usually referred to as stylists) and a color and
   materials designer. A few other designers will be involved in detail
   design of both exterior and interior. For example, a designer might be
   tasked with designing the rear light clusters or the steering wheel.
   The color and materials designer will work closely with the exterior
   and interior designers in developing exterior colour paints, interior
   colors, fabrics, leathers, carpet, wood trim and so on.

   In 1924 the American national automobile market began reaching
   saturation. To maintain unit sales, General Motors instituted annual
   model-year design changes in order to convince car owners that they
   needed to buy a new replacement each year. Since 1935 automotive form
   has been driven more by consumer expectations than by engineering
   improvement.

Safety

   Automobile accidents are almost as old as automobiles themselves. Early
   examples include, Joseph Cugnot, who crashed his steam-powered
   "Fardier" against a wall in 1771, Mary Ward, who became one of the
   first document automobile fatalites on August 31, 1869 in Parsonstown,
   Ireland, and Henry Bliss, one of the United State's first automobile
   casulties on September 13, 1899 in New York City, NY.

   Cars have many basic safety problems - for example, they have human
   drivers who make mistakes, wheels that lose traction when the braking
   or turning forces are too high. Some vehicles have a high centre of
   gravity and therefore an increased tendency to roll over. When driven
   at high speeds, collisions can have serious or even fatal consequence.

   Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes
   and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern
   engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which
   are heavier than air, vent to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic and
   dual circuit so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable
   breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started in 1958 at Ford
   Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing
   external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of
   human bodies in the passenger compartment.

   Significant reductions in death and injury have come from the addition
   of Safety belts and laws in many countries to require vehicle occupants
   to wear them. Airbags and specialised child restraint systems have
   improved on that. Structural changes such as side-impact protection
   bars in the doors and side panels of the car mitigate the effect of
   impacts to the side of the vehicle. Many cars now include radar or
   sonar detectors mounted to the rear of the car to warn the driver if he
   or she is about to reverse into an obstacle or a pedestrian. Some
   vehicle manufacturers are producing cars with devices that also measure
   the proximity to obstacles and other vehicles in front of the car and
   are using these to apply the brakes when a collision is inevitable.
   There have also been limited efforts to use heads up displays and
   thermal imaging technologies similar to those used in military aircraft
   to provide the driver with a better view of the road at night.

   There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the
   EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests. There are also tests run by
   organizations such as IIHS and backed by the insurance industry.

   Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life
   from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the U.S.,
   with similar figures in Europe. This figure increases annually in step
   with rising population and increasing travel if no measures are taken,
   but the rate per capita and per mile travelled decreases steadily. The
   death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much
   higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability.
   The highest accident figures are reported in China and India. The
   European Union has a rigid program to cut the death toll in the EU in
   half by 2010 and member states have started implementing measures.

   Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully
   prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32 G emergency
   stop (reducing the safe intervehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads
   incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety
   modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most
   funding authorities, although these modifications could dramatically
   increase the number of vehicles that could safely use a high-speed
   highway.

Economics and societal impact

   The economics of personal automobile ownership go beyond the initial
   cost of the vehicle and includes repairs, maintenance, fuel,
   depreciation, the cost of borrowing, parking fees, tire replacement,
   taxes and insurance. Additionally, there are indirect societal costs
   such as the costs of maintaining roads and other infrastructure,
   pollution, health care costs due to accidents and the cost of finally
   disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life. The ability for humans
   to move rapidly from place to place has far reaching implications for
   the nature of our society. People can now live far from their
   workplaces, the design of our cities is determined as much by the need
   to get vehicles into and out of the city as the nature of the buildings
   and public spaces within the city.

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