auto have get along a long way since Henry Ford rolled the Model T off the assembly line in Detroit nearly 100 days ago . Indeed , Henry Ford could scarcely conceive of the ways in which the car has germinate and improved over the years . From Modern safety features to amusement units and luxuries such as heated up seats , the forward-looking motor vehicle is a marvel of engineering . And now , we are moving towards completely self-reliant ego - driving cars . The automobile industry is constantly reinventing itself . And each melioration over the age has built on the ones that have come in before it and led us to where we are today . Here ’s a look at the 10 groovy motorcar founding of all time , and the impact that they have had on the automobile we now drive .
10. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Electronic Maps
There was a time , not too long ago , when getting lose in your car was a real and frequent problem . To find out where you were going postulate machine driver to pluck over , pull out a turgid paper map , spread it out across the dashboard and attempt to chance , with their digit , where they were and where their destination is situate . This cumbersome job has largely been eradicated thanks to the prevalence of the Global Positioning System ( GPS ) and electronic mathematical function used in cars today . The electronic mapping technologies used in most vehicles today are a wonder of science and enable people to get just about anywhere without getting lost . advance cars today have large onscreen displays that put navigation via the GPS right in their view . intimately yet , many of the GPS systems today skin out orders to the driver , telling them when to turn and which exit to take off the highway to safely get through their destination . This is a luxury that hoi polloi could not have imagine even 15 years ago but is now common billet in most vehicle .
9. Run Flat Tires
Few vehicle component have develop over the age as much as tires . From the textile that tires are made of through to the developing of all terrain tire and the far-flung utilization of winter tires . However , of all the founding relate to tyre in the last one C , the most significant from a guard linear perspective is the exploitation of run prostrate tyre . Common in nearly all tires today , run 2-dimensional engineering enables tyre to continue some air and proceed operating after they have been puncture . Granted , the vehicle has to be driven at a reduced speed ( about five miles an hour ) and can only go for a shortsighted distance ( about 10 miles ) , but , in most situations , this is enough to safely get people to a garage for needed repairs . This has helped to eliminate the hatful of masses changing a tire on the side of a route , and saved countless drivers money spend on tow . It has also led to improved safety and done aside with tire blowouts that were once common topographic point .
8. Key Fobs
Today , key fob are omnipresent and used to do everything from unlock doors , set off the horn and lights if you lose your car in a parking lot , and , in some cases , commend how you like your hind end and mirror and adjust them consequently . Almost everyone today uses a central watch chain to open and lock their car . Yet fundamental fob have only been around since 1993 when they were introduced for that year ’s Chevy Corvette . Now , all cars have fundamental watch pocket that save people from having to remember where they park their railcar and cause to employ a key to reach the room access . Key fobs have also become an of import condom creature , as they are equip to set off auto alarm in the event that a mortal is mugged or attacked in a parking lot or parking service department .
7. Electric Engines
While this technology is still being elaborate , galvanising engines are the future of the self-propelling diligence and more vehicles are being fit out with them all the clock time . What depart with intercrossed gas and galvanic engine a ten ago is now prompt to pure galvanizing engines open of powering a car without the need for any gasoline or diesel . Not only is this a radical change for the entre self-propelling industry , but it is look to salve motorist money and facilitate boil down pollution around the human race and stanch the flowing of nursery gases thought to cause climate alteration . While many automotive analysts scoffed at intercrossed engine when they first came on the scene , the maturation of the electrical engine has only advanced and improved in recent yr — to the point where they are now becoming the measure in cars .
6. Airbags
prophylactic has amend with each generation of elevator car . And one of the most innovative prophylactic discovery ever has been airbags . And , believe it or not , airbags are still a comparatively Modern initiation . Wide spread employment of airbags set out in the late 1980s , and , initially , only the driver of a railcar was equipped with an airbag that deploy in the outcome of a crash or on shock . However , as it became cleared that airbags are incredibly efficacious at saving lifetime , use of the equipment pass around and came to admit the front rider as well . Airbags have continued to develop over the years , and they are now creditworthy for economise thousands of lives each year . As recently as 2011 , General Motors introduced a fresh front substance air bag , which was the industry ’s first inflatable centre of attention restraint design to protect drivers and front passengers in side encroachment clang .
5. Power Steering and Power Brakes
It used to be a bunch more difficult to drive a car , and it required considerable strength to steer and implement the bracken . This was in the age before power steering and great power brakes . Many motorist used to breathe heavy when turn the guidance wheel in their car , and using the brakes collapse citizenry ’s calfskin muscles a good workout . Now , steering and braking have never been easier thanks to the innovation of “ power system . ” Power steering has actually been around , in theory , since the first car were fabricate by the Ford Motor Company . But back then they were believe too expensive to be installed in every fomite and made available to the public . It was n’t until 1951 when Chrysler introduced the first passenger motorcar equip with power guidance on its majestic model . advertize as “ Hydraguide , ” the raw power steering organisation shoot the automobile humanity by violent storm and come across with a generation of motorists who had of late return from the Second World War and were move to the suburbs . office guidance is accredit with name car easier to operate and more accessible to American consumers .
4. Anti-Lock Brakes
Another vital base hit feature film is the anti - lock bracken . Automobile manufacturers had been play with electronic braking system of rules as far back as the early sixties , but none could commercialize the technology . It was n’t until 1978 when Mercedes - Benz instal the first Anti - lock Braking Systems ( Av ) on its production cars for that year that Bachelor of Arts became the new standard in the globular car industry . The computerized braking arrangement help drivers maintain restraint of their vehicle while stopping , and stabilize cars , preventing them from wheel over on wallop . This technology revolutionize the self-propelled industry , and today ABS is the measure in all brand and models of vehicles . The applied science makes brakes on older model gondola from the 1960s and fifties look like something out of the Stone Age .
3. Automatic Transmissions
Automatic transmissions are now largely the standard in cars . Manual transmission that apply hold close pedals and gear wheel shifting are still available , but have largely been replaced by automatic contagion that budge gears electronically and mechanically for driver . And automatic transmittance have been around since 1940 , when General Motors bring in what it then called the “ Hydra - Matic , ” the first mass - produce machinelike transmission that made it easy for people everywhere to force back , and learn to drive . General Motors advertize its first automatic transmission car as the “ World ’s simple , gentle elbow room to Drive ! ” Today , most people have never drive a manual transmission car or learned to work a clutch pedal . And while many drive purist prefer to “ drive a joystick , ” and claim it is the real way to drive a railroad car , most motorists prefer the gismo of automatic transmission .
2. Seat Belts
They are wide regarded as the groovy safety excogitation in self-propelling history , and people are now require to wear them by practice of law in most jurisdictions . But there was a prison term when machine did not issue forth equip with any fanny belts , and another time when backside belts were an optional feature of speech for automobilist . American motorcar manufacturer Nash was the first company to make a vehicle with a tail belt in it back in 1949 . The Ford Motor Company , in 1955 , offered seat belts as an pick for its cars . The first company to place hindquarters belts in a car as a standard item was Swedish machine manufacturing business Saab in 1958 . The world ’s first arse belt law pretend the safety devices mandatory was put in topographic point in 1970 in Victoria , Australia . Today , inquiry shows that seat belts shorten the peril of fatal injury to front seat occupants by 45 percent , and depress the risk of moderate - to - critical combat injury by 50 percentage . Not surprising then that seat belts are now postulate by jurisprudence to be wear in most jurisdictions throughout the world .
1. Gasoline Engine
While we ’re now move towards the widespread usage of electric engines in vehicles , the gasoline locomotive has endured for nearly 100 days — since 1920 . And yet , the gas engine was not the first type of engine used in cars . It was a steam power locomotive that was used first . However , by 1920 , the intimate combustion engine had progressed to the point that the steam engine was rendered obsolete . The gasoline - fueled national combustion engine took over and has direct to the modernistic automobile of today . Interestingly , the gasoline railway locomotive has not changed much over the yr . The canonic make - up of the railway locomotive has remained largely unchanged despite all the other design add to motor vehicles . Gasoline internal burning railway locomotive have gotten multiplication of motorists where they need to go and powered the phylogeny of the car .