The invention and evolution of the automobile began with the invention of the wheel, and progressed through steam, electricity, and internal combustion engines to the current gasoline and electric vehicles. In the future, green energy and self-driving technology will drive automotive innovation.
The word ‘car’, meaning automobile, comes from the Latin words ‘carrus’ and ‘carrum’. In English, the word is ‘automobile’. Automobile combines the words “autonomy” and “mobility,” meaning that a car is a means of transportation that can move freely on its own. People have long wanted to get to their destinations quickly and easily, and to move heavy loads with ease. This led to the use of horses, carts, carriages, and other forms of transportation in the past. This interest in human transportation led to the creation of the automobile.
Automobiles began to be produced on a small scale by small businesses in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, steam cars, electric cars, and gasoline cars were competing with each other. But when Ford began mass-producing cars, the market changed. And now, with the current focus on green energy, electric and solar cars are back in the spotlight. In this article, we’ll explain the history of these cars, as well as the cars of today and the cars of tomorrow.
About 6000 years ago, man invented the wheel from an oyster shell. The invention of the wheel revolutionized the way humans moved around. Although various means of rolling under animal or human power have been invented, humans have always dreamed of a cart that runs under its own power. Leonardo da Vinci created the first automobile in 1482, and in 1569, Dutchman S. Steffin built the first wind-powered car, traveling up to 34 kilometers per hour.
In the mid-17th century, after James Watt’s steam engine became practical, Frenchman Nicolas Joseph Quignot invented a three-wheeled steam tractor. However, Quignot’s car was three-wheeled, had a maximum speed of only 5 kilometers per hour, needed to be refilled with water every 15 minutes, and had no brakes. These features made it difficult to get the car up hills, and it would crash into walls and start fires. Quiño’s attempts were interrupted by the French Revolution.
In 1801, the Englishman Richard Trevissick invented the first eight-seat, four-wheeled steam car that could carry passengers. However, the development and production of automobiles was heavily regulated during the reign of Queen Victoria because they damaged roads, were noisy, and emitted a lot of smoke. Steam cars could not travel faster than 6 miles per hour in the countryside and 3 miles per hour in cities. In the late 19th century, companies began to form to develop steam-powered cars. One of the leading companies was the American Stanley Company, founded by twin brothers Francis Edgar Stanley and Freeman Oscar Stanley. Steam locomotives were built in Europe as well as the United States, but their large and heavy boilers made them unproductive and their high maintenance costs made them unsuitable for private use. For this reason, steam locomotives gradually disappeared.
In the mid-19th century, electric cars were invented, but they didn’t make much progress because they could only travel short distances on a long charge. The automobile as we know it today began with the application of the internal combustion engine. The first internal combustion engine was developed in 1820 by William Cecil in England, who created an engine by exploding a mixture of hydrogen and air. In 1876, N. Otto of Germany created a four-stroke cycle engine using the principle of the cycle engine discovered by A.B. Rosa in 1862. G. Daimler, who worked in Otto’s internal combustion engine laboratory, invented a gasoline-powered engine and patented the first two-wheeled car. Around the same time, K. Benz invented a gasoline-powered locomotive and patented a three-wheeled car. Not only did they create the first gasoline-powered car, but they were also the first to corporatize the automobile. In 1926, the two companies merged to form Daimler-Benz, and the car was named Mercedes-Benz.
The shape of the first Mercedes car invented by Daimler is the basic shape of today’s cars. The first Mercedes cars had a honeycomb radiator, round headlamps, and semi-elliptical springs. The automobile industry began at the end of the 19th century, but it wasn’t until the American Model T Ford in 1908 that mass production began. Thanks to Ford’s mass production, cars went from being an expensive luxury to becoming increasingly commonplace. By 1913, Ford had already produced more than 100,000 cars. The reason the United States was so far ahead of Europe in automotive technology and business was largely due to environmental factors. America’s large land mass created a strong demand for transportation, and horse-drawn carriages were inadequate. Wages were also higher than in Europe, so the need for transportation was much stronger than in Europe, where wages were relatively cheap. For these reasons, the United States was able to move ahead much more quickly in commercial production than Europe.
The vehicles we now call cars can be divided into two main structures. Cars are like people. The first is the body, which is like a person’s skin and organizes the exterior and interior space, and the second is the chassis, which is the combination of all the necessary devices for driving, such as the organs that make a person move. The body is mostly designed to have the least amount of air resistance. The chassis is everything outside the body of the car. The chassis contains the engine, powertrain, steering, brakes, and suspension. The engine generates the power needed for the car to move. Parts of the engine include the fuel system, ignition, lubrication, cooling, intake/exhaust, and starter. The transmission is responsible for transferring power from the engine to the wheels. The transmission consists of the clutch, transmission, differential, wheels, and tires. The steering system helps the driver determine the direction of the vehicle. It consists of a steering mechanism, gear mechanism, and linkage mechanism. The brakes are used to slow down or stop the car. Finally, the suspension absorbs the shocks that the wheels receive while driving, minimizing damage to the car and making the ride more comfortable.
However, the cars of the future are expected to be very different from the steam-powered cars of the past. Fossil fuels are a finite resource. Therefore, there is a growing interest in alternative and renewable energies. Alternative energy sources include solar, ethanol, hydrogen, fuel cells, and biodiesel. While we don’t yet have a car that runs entirely on renewable energy, research and attempts to create such a car are ongoing. For example, electric cars still have some work to do on batteries. If you want to increase the range, you need to increase the amount of batteries. However, more batteries mean more weight, which means that the car can’t have a long range. Solar-powered cars, on the other hand, use electric cells to charge and use solar energy during the day. However, solar cars are currently still in the research phase due to the lack of places to develop them on a large scale and the low efficiency of solar cells. However, efforts to utilize renewable energy are currently represented by hybrid cars.
For example, the Avante, Forte, Sonata, and K5 are all hybrid cars. A hybrid car is a vehicle that uses two or more energy sources, such as electricity and gasoline. There are different types of hybrid cars. For example, there are electric and fuel cell vehicles, gasoline engine-electric vehicles, gas turbine engine-electric vehicles, diesel engine-electric vehicles, etc.
In the future, the convergence of IT and automobiles is likely to be even more prominent. Smart cars and autonomous vehicles are in the spotlight these days. Smart cars are cars that can be operated using computers, communication, and measurement technology. By connecting the car with smart devices, it will create a new car experience for the driver and passengers. Self-driving cars are cars that literally drive themselves on the road. One of the leaders in the development of self-driving cars is Google. Google has been working hard to develop advanced sensors that can recognize their surroundings and integrate them with smart devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs. In fact, BMW has implemented a technology in its i3 electric car that includes four laser scanners to help prevent collisions with obstacles in the environment. Currently, several countries are creating and tweaking laws to advance the era of self-driving cars and become leaders. For example, the US state of Nevada first allowed self-driving cars to operate in 2011.
Cars have been and still are one of the most important forms of transportation for humans. As described above, they have evolved from steam-powered cars to the self-driving cars of the future. In the future, electric cars, solar-powered cars, and self-driving cars will be commonplace, which we have not yet realized. The technological advancement of cars will never stop, and we will have more convenient and efficient cars.
