The word “automobile” comes from the same word in French, combining “auto” or self, with “mobile” or moving. The term describes the gas-guzzling vehicles that can carry cargo and people today, but its definition wasn’t always so straightforward.
Depending on how strictly the term “automobile” is interpreted, there are several contenders for the title of the first automobile. We’ll explore how inventors grappled with the idea of making a transport-capable gas-fueled machine.
When was the first car invented? Here are several people and their inventions that qualify as the first automobile.
In 1672, a Belgian Jesuit designed a small steam-powered cart that could move under its power. This small vehicle was made to entertain a 17-year-old Chinese emperor.
Who invented the car? The British Royal Automobile Club and Automobile Club de France recognize that the first automobile was made by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France in 1769.
However, this wasn’t remotely close to an automobile as we know it today. It was just a three-wheeled steam engine meant to pull heavy loads. It wasn’t even made for people in mind because it had no seats or space for people.
From this point on, several noteworthy people built on the idea of the automobile.
Nicholas Otto invented an effective four-stroke gasoline engine, which he incorporated into a motorcycle. The four-stroke engine was originally called the “Otto Cycle Engine.”
This is an important landmark in engine design because it came after a hundred years of several inventors attempting to make an efficient internal combustion engine. Otto’s invention was adopted by all liquid-fueled vehicles.
Gottlieb Daimler, working with Wilhelm Maybach, refined Otto’s internal combustion engine in 1885. Together, they created a smaller, more efficient gasoline engine that revolutionized vehicle design.
Daimler then adapted this engine to a stagecoach in 1886, building the world’s first four-wheeled automobile. This was probably the first internal combustion car.
Further innovations, like the V-slanted two-cylinder engine and the first purpose-built automobile with a four-speed transmission, solidified Daimler’s contributions.
There are still debates about earlier gasoline-powered vehicles. However, Daimler’s practical engine and automobile designs paved the way for the rise of gasoline-powered cars and the modern automotive industry.
Karl Benz designed and patented the first practical gasoline-powered automobile, the Patent-Motorwagen or patented motor car in 1886.
It was a three-wheeled vehicle that integrated an internal combustion engine with a chassis. Benz’s invention marked a significant advancement in automotive history, leading to the establishment of Benz & Cie., which became a leading car manufacturer.
Benz is credited with pioneering the concept of designing the engine and chassis as a unified system. Many consider Karl Benz’s invention to be the first real automobile because his iteration was highly successful and practical.
His vehicles looked and worked like the cars we use today. However, Benz might share the invention of the automobile with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, as their engine and transmission designs made Benz’s vehicles possible.
Henry Ford revolutionized car manufacturing by implementing the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in 1913-14. This was a significant turning point for vehicles because it significantly reduced production time and costs.
Incredibly, the Model T had a 93-minute assembly time. Ford’s production innovations, coupled with the affordable Model T, sold over 15 million units and made vehicles affordable.
Initially, the Ford Model T had a retail price of $850. As sales skyrocketed and production was made more efficient, the Model T even reached prices as low as $260.
René Panhard and Émile Levassor founded Panhard et Levassor in 1887. In 1891, they produced their first automobile using a Daimler patent license.
Panhard positioned the engine and radiator in the front. Then, they had a rudimentary sliding-gear transmission, in place of the back engine used in the original Daimler and Benz vehicles.
This was the first front-engine, rear-wheel drive vehicle and was dubbed the “Systeme Panhard.” Both Daimler and Benz later adopted that setup, which is still in use today.
The electric starter motor was created in 1912 by engineer Charles Franklin Kettering. This mechanism served as the model for contemporary automobile keys because it substituted an electric motor and turnkey for the manual hand crank.
The 1912 Cadillac Model Thirty, which had 40 horsepower, was the first to have an electric starter.
In 1918, Malcolm Loughead, one of the founders of the future Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, developed four-wheel hydraulic braking systems for automobiles. The force applied to the pedal is immediately transferred to the pistons using fluids.
Hydraulic braking was revolutionary because they were far superior to mechanical braking systems that used a series of cables, rods, and levers.
The first automatic transmission was created in 1921 by Canadian steam engineer Alfred Horner Munro. He patented his innovation in 1923.
His transmission used air pressure rather than hydraulic fluid to move internal gear mechanisms inside the automatic transmission. These early models had four forward gears and no reverse or parking gears.
General Motors employed early automatic transmissions in the company’s Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile.
In 1956, the Bendix Electrojector became the first electronic fuel injection (EFI) system. This system was first available in the 1957 AMC Rambler and was well ahead of its time. However, the Electrojector was unreliable because of the technology at the time.
EFI systems were continuously upgraded as computing technology advanced. By the late 1980s, EFI systems replaced carburetors as the industry norm.
Modern EFI systems make engines more fuel-efficient and high-performing by precisely delivering fuel-air mixes to them via electronic control units (ECUs) and onboard computers.
Bosch registered a patent for a mechanism to prevent wheel locking as early as 1936, but the technology was hampered by slow mechanical controls.
Semiconductor technology in the early 1960s paved the way for faster, electronically controlled systems. Bosch unveiled ABS 2 in 1978, the first production-ready electronically controlled ABS.
This innovation allowed shorter braking distances and improved steering control by preventing wheel lockup. It improved vehicle safety and control.
Allen Breed owned the patent for the only crash-sensing technology at the start of the airbag industry. Breed created a “sensor and safety system” in 1968, and it was the first electromechanical car airbag system ever made.
After being reluctant during the ’60s and ’70s, manufacturers made airbags a key safety component in the ‘80s. Airbags are designed to deploy in milliseconds using a complex chain reaction that is initiated by sensors. The sensors alert an ignitor to release a quick burst of gas to inflate the airbags in the event of a violent hit.
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