Advances in technology are transforming society, and the automotive industry is at the center of this transformation. More than just a means of transportation, cars are helping to redefine industries and the way we live. The automotive industry continues to evolve, shaping new transportation infrastructure and the way we live in the future.
Technology changes society, and the culture and daily lives of the people in that society gradually change. Advances in technology don’t just make our lives easier, they fundamentally change the structure and patterns of society, shaping new cultures and ways of life. We can witness this transformation through how deeply ingrained smartphones, the internet, and other digital technologies have become in our daily lives. These changes have a profound impact on how we communicate, how we work, how we play, and more. New technologies themselves often form entire industry ecosystems, and the benefits they create often lead to changes in efficient and innovative systems.
The advent of the automobile is a prime example of how much technology has influenced human history. More than just a means of transportation, the automobile was part of the Industrial Revolution, which brought about a new economic paradigm that spurred social change on a global scale. The automobile is the culmination of the mechanical industry, with an exterior body, an interior engine and transmission, and hundreds of small and large components that make up the core. To make a single car, various materials such as steel, glass, rubber, and fiber are needed, and the process of processing and assembling them requires a high degree of technology and precision. New technologies are constantly being developed and applied in this process, which has a ripple effect not only on the automotive industry but also on other industries.
The automotive industry has great economic value in its own right, but its derivative industries, such as transportation, refining, maintenance, and countless others, account for a significant amount of the development of modern society. It has also made significant contributions to the quality of human life, and today, smart cars, personal transportation, and driverless cars are among the biggest drivers of future growth.
The emergence of the automobile is based on the simple human instinct to move through space. In order for humans to live, they need to ensure their basic ritualistic life, and they need various goods to do so. The problem lies in the difference between goods and human location. Therefore, whether it is the movement of humans themselves or the movement of goods, there is a need to move around in space, and this instinct and desire drives the development of transportation. To solve the need for movement, people used early forms of transportation, such as carriages and carts, which gradually evolved into mechanized forms. Airplanes, ships, trains, and automobiles were invented along the three routes available to humans: air, water, and land. The automobile emerged as the most accessible mode of transportation, running on the ground and utilizing land rather than railroads.
The Road Transport Vehicle Act defines an automobile as “a tool made for the purpose of moving on land by a prime mover,” and the KS Industrial Standard describes it as “a vehicle equipped with a prime mover and a steering device and capable of traveling on the ground using them.” The Road Transport Vehicle Act, which emphasizes actions on the road, emphasizes the ‘purpose of movement on land’, and the industrial industrial standard emphasizes mechanical devices such as ‘prime mover’ and ‘steering device’, but overall, a motor vehicle can be defined as a vehicle that moves on land with a ‘prime mover’ that generates mechanical energy and a ‘steering device’ that sets direction. Motorcycles are classified as cars because they use an engine and steering wheel to travel on the road, and the increasingly popular e-bikes and scooters are technically two-wheeled “cars” that run on electricity. Bicycles, on the other hand, don’t have engines, and trains, while they do have engines and steering, are not classified as cars because they run on railroads rather than roads.
There are many more elements that make up a real car than just the motor and steering. First of all, a car is divided into two main parts: the body and the chassis. The body is the base of the car, the part that supports its movement and carries people or goods. A good body should be stiff and flexible enough to move over the road without changing its shape, strong enough to keep the driver safe in a crash, and light enough to reduce fuel consumption and increase stability. You can also tell a car apart by its body. The body is the outermost part of the car, and its shape determines its design and function. For example, a car with two doors and a low ceiling is a coupe, while a wagon is a car with a horizontal ceiling that extends to the trunk. A Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) has a higher wheelbase and ground clearance than a regular car, and a Truck has a roofless cargo area. The body is the identity of a car that provides the most information to the average user.
The rest of the car’s elements other than the body are called the chassis. As such, the chassis is made up of several mechanical devices that contribute to the car’s performance, functionality, and safety. The main components of the chassis are the engine and steering, as mentioned in the definition of a car, along with the powertrain, suspension, wheels and tires, and brakes. The powertrain transmits the power from the engine to the wheels, the suspension cushions the car to improve ride comfort, the wheels and tires absorb shocks between the ground and the car, and the brakes control the speed of the car and stop it. Like the body, cars are also classified by the main device of the chassis. In general, there are gasoline cars, diesel cars, LPG cars, LNG cars, and electric cars depending on the engine. Gasoline cars are cars that use a spark-ignition engine that uses gasoline as fuel and explodes a mixture of air and fuel by igniting a spark with an ignition device, and because it explodes at a relatively low temperature, it has the advantage of high power and low noise. Therefore, it is used in high-end passenger cars with good ride comfort. Diesel cars, which are most often used in conjunction with gasoline, use a compression ignition engine that uses diesel as fuel and compresses it to create a self-explosion. It is noisy and has a low power output due to the self-detonation, but it is used in SUVs and large vehicles due to its good power and fuel efficiency. LPG and LNG are natural fuels with low environmental pollution and are characterized by high efficiency and high energy storage density, respectively. Different engines have different characteristics, and different types of cars require different characteristics, so the choice of engine is a very important factor in determining the characteristics of a car. In addition to the engine, many other devices have their own roles, and their functions combine to create a complex mechanical crystal called an automobile.
In addition to the body and engine, cars are also categorized by their purpose. The earliest cars were invented based on the instinct to move around in space, so they were divided into passenger cars to transport people and freight cars to transport goods. However, as society diversified and required different functions, specialized vehicles with specialized purposes emerged. Examples of specialty vehicles include fire trucks to extinguish fires, tow trucks to tow cars, and construction vehicles such as excavators used in construction sites. There are also recreational vehicles that are used for human entertainment. They are not designed to move through space or perform specialized functions, but simply for people to have fun. These vehicles have evolved into many different forms, such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) for off-road use or race cars for racing. More recently, vehicles for leisure activities such as campers have become popular. The existence of cars with so many different uses shows how much of a role they play in our society.
As a product of such an advanced civilization, cars were actually first created in Europe starting in the 17th century. In 1633, English scientist John Howlish built a car that ran on a leaf, and in 1680, Newton planned a thrust car that used steam to propel itself using recoil. However, these cars don’t strictly meet the definition of a “prime mover” because they didn’t convert other energy sources into mechanical energy. The first car that actually met the definition was a steam car built in 1770, which used steam to convert the linear motion of a piston into rotational motion. It gradually improved over time, and by the early 19th century, steam cars had become a popular form of transportation. However, due to its large size, heavy weight, and the delay before steam was generated, it was not suitable for personal use, and as an automobile, it did not have a significant impact on society. The first real social change to come from the automobile came with the electric car and the internal combustion engine. After the British inventor Davidson’s electric car in 1873, the technology to make small and efficient cars was developed, and Ford built a large-scale production line for practical cars, and society began to change in earnest.
The idea of a small, efficient, privately owned, practical car was a paradigm-shifting shock. In a time when transportation was “legs,” people could only travel a few dozen kilometers a day. Even with horses and oxen, it was difficult to travel more than 100 kilometers, and even more difficult for the common people to use them. Therefore, the advent of the automobile that the common people could own was very revolutionary. Not only did it allow people to travel hundreds of kilometers in a day, but it also allowed them to travel in minutes to places that once took hours to reach. More importantly, the majority of the population has been able to enjoy these benefits. With industrialization and scientific advancement, society has become increasingly dependent on the organic connections and flows between multiple systems and individual systems. The role of the automobile is to be the carrier of this flow. It is like the “red blood cells” flowing through the blood vessels in the human body. Like red blood cells, they are small and efficient in their function, supplying the materials and labor needed to maintain the systems in every corner of the land. The advent of the automobile is akin to the cure for anemia. Anemia is a lack of red blood cells or oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, and people with anemia are unable to engage in dynamic physical activity because even the slightest exercise becomes dangerous due to oxygen deprivation. But just as a healthy person can move and exercise quickly, the invention of the automobile gave society the impetus to become more dynamic and develop rapidly.
The current automobile industry has an enormous industrial and economic impact. With a history of more than 130 years, the automotive industry is the oldest industry in existence, the largest industry in the world, and still growing. Dr. P. Drucker, the great management guru, called the automotive industry an “industry within an industry” due to its objective size and influence. As we have seen from the numerous devices and parts, the automobile industry requires tremendous technology and supporting industries, and includes front industries such as materials, research, and manufacturing facilities before manufacturing, and back industries such as sales, maintenance, distribution, and service after manufacturing. The automobile industry contributes significantly to the national economy and accounts for a large share of Korea’s exports and imports. As of 2023, the share of tax revenue from automobiles in South Korea has decreased slightly due to the expanding adoption of electric and eco-friendly vehicles and declining fuel consumption, but it still plays an important role in the country’s finances.
The negative impacts are also significant. The main one is air pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions, along with fine dust from diesel exhaust and increased fine dust from tire wear, are causing huge problems for the air environment. In order to solve the problem of emissions, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles have emerged as alternatives and are being actively developed and advanced. However, it is also necessary to be vigilant about tires, as a study by the National Institute of Environmental Science found that fine dust emissions from tire wear ranked second among all causes. The construction of roads, the infrastructure for automobiles, is also a serious cause of soil erosion. As asphalt blocks the soil from the outside world and causes it to rot, the need to develop eco-friendly asphalt is also emerging. In addition to environmental problems, social problems such as traffic accidents and lack of parking spaces continue to occur. Recently, there has been a social movement to solve the cost of purchasing a car and the inefficiency of utilizing car space through car sharing.
The automobile is the culmination of humanity’s technological progress and industrialization, and a means of livelihood for hundreds of millions of people. Smart cars, which provide services by automatically and organically connecting the car, the driver, the surrounding environment, and the transportation infrastructure, have been selected as one of Korea’s 19 future growth engines. Self-driving cars are already being researched and developed by giant companies such as Google, Apple, Baidu, and Microsoft. In addition, new personal transportation such as electric bikes and electric wheels are opening a new chapter in the automobile industry. The automobile market is already growing every year, and related legislation is steadily being proposed, and it has begun to establish itself in society, especially among young people in their 20s and 30s, due to its low price and efficiency. These new technologies are not just advancing the automotive industry, but are also driving new transportation infrastructure and changes in urban planning, which will ultimately redefine the way we live. The automobile, the flower of the mechanical and electronic industry, has led the way for human progress and is now leading the way to smart cars, autonomous vehicles, and new modes of personal transportation.
