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Car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other types of motorized vehicles, see Motor vehicle. For other uses, see Car
(disambiguation), Automobile (disambiguation), and Cars (disambiguation).

Car

Benz "Velo" model (1894) by German inventorCarl Benz entered into

an early automobile race as a motocycle[1][2]

Classification

Vehicle

Industry

Various

Application

Transportation

Fuel source

Gasoline, Diesel, Electric,Hydrogen, Solar energy

Powered

Yes

Self-propelled

Yes

Wheels

34

Axles

12

Inventor

Ferdinand Verbiest

Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC.

World map of passenger cars per 1000 people

A car is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation. Most definitions of the
term specify that cars are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight
people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people
rather than goods.[3][4] The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car. In that year,
German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars did not become widely
available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was
the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were
rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animaldrawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other,
less developed, parts of the world.
Cars are equipped with controls used for driving, parking, and passenger comfort and safety.
New controls have also been added to vehicles, making them more complex. Examples
include air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Most cars in use today are
propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagration of gasoline (also known as
petrol) or diesel. Both fuels cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate
change and global warming.[5] Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel
vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries.
Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. [6] The costs of car
usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs and auto maintenance,
fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance,[7] are weighed against the cost
of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits perceived and real of vehicle usage. The
benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and convenience. [8] The
costs to society of encompassing car use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, land
use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can
be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that car use generates. The societal
benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of car production and
maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel
opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move
flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies. [9]
The term motorcar has formerly also been used in the context of electrified rail systems to denote
a car which functions as a small locomotive but also provides space for passengers and

baggage. These locomotive cars were often used on suburban routes by both interurban and
intercity railroad systems.[10]
It was estimated in 2010 that the number of cars had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, up from the
500 million of 1986.[11] The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China, India and
other NICs.[12]
Contents
[hide]

Etymology

1 Etymology

2 History

3 Mass production

4 User interface

5 Lighting

6 Weight

7 Seating and body style

8 Fuel and propulsion technologies

9 Safety

10 Costs and benefits

11 Environmental impact

12 Future car technologies

o

12.1 Autonomous car

12.2 Open source development

13 Industry

14 Alternatives to the car

15 See also

16 References

17 Further reading

18 External links

The word "car" is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"),
or the Middle English word carre (meaning cart, from Old North French). In turn, these originated
from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic chariot). The Gaulish language was a branch of the
Brythoic language which also used the word Karr; the Brythonig language evolved
into Welsh (and Gaelic) where 'Car llusg' (a drag cart or sledge) and 'car rhyfel' (war chariot) still
survive.[13][14] It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or
wagon.[15][16] "Motor car" is attested from 1895, and is the usual formal name for cars in British
English.[4] "Autocar" is a variant that is also attested from 1895, but that is now considered
archaic. It literally means "self-propelled car".[17]
The word "automobile" is a classical compound derived from the Ancient
Greek word auts (), meaning "self", and the Latin word mobilis, meaning "movable". It
entered theEnglish language from French, and was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great
Britain in 1897.[18] Over time, the word "automobile" fell out of favour in Britain, and was replaced
by "motor car". It remains a chiefly North American usage.[19]

History
Main article: History of the automobile
The first working steam-powered vehicle was designedand most likely builtby Ferdinand
Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65-cm-long
scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.[8][20][21] It
is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built.[21]

Cugnot's 1771 fardier vapeur, as preserved at the Muse des Arts et Mtiers, Paris.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full-scale, self-propelled
mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769; he created a steam-powered tricycle. [22] He also
constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in theFrench
National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.[23] His inventions were, however, handicapped by
problems with water supply and maintaining steam pressure.[23] In 1801, Richard Trevithick built
and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first
demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam
pressure for long periods, and was of little practical use.
The development of external combustion engines is detailed as part of the history of the car, but
often treated separately from the development of true cars. A variety of steam-powered road
vehicles were used during the first part of the 19th century, including steam cars, steam
buses, phaetons, and steam rollers. Sentiment against them led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865.
In 1807 Nicphore Nipce and his brother Claude created what was probably the world's
first internal combustion engine (which they called a Pyrolophore), but they chose to install it in
a boat on the river Saone in France.[24] Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor Franois Isaac
de Rivaz designed his own 'de Rivaz internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the
world's first vehicle to be powered by such an engine. The Nipces' Pyrolophore was fuelled by
a mixture ofLycopodium powder (dried spores of the Lycopodium plant), finely crushed coal dust
and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen andoxygen.
[24]
Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel
Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles
(usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by internal combustion engines. [25]

In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouv demonstrated a working three-wheeled car
powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris.[26]

Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car

Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach,
and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally
is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern car.[25]

A photograph of the original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept

In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many
of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a
vehicle. His firstMotorwagen was built in 1885 in Mannheim, Germany. He was awarded the
patent for its invention as of his application on 29 January 1886 (under the auspices of his major
company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883). Benz began promotion of the vehicle on 3
July 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first fourwheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered
with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz
engines under license, now added the Benz car to his line of products. Because France was
more open to the early cars, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz
sold in Germany. In August 1888 Bertha Benz, the wife of Karl Benz, undertook the first road
trip by car, to prove the road-worthiness of her husband's invention.

Bertha Benz, the first long distance car driver in the world

In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor.
During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest car company in the world
with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock
company.
The first motor car in central Europe and one of the first factory-made cars in the world, was
produced by Czech company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra) in 1897,
the Prsident automobil.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and
sold their first car in 1892 under the brand nameDaimler. It was a horse-drawn stagecoach built
by another manufacturer, which they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30
vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel
Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz, Maybach and the
Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked
together; by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer
part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named DaimlerMercedes that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek.
This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his
country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG car was produced and the model was
named Mercedes after the Maybach engine, which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly
thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to
other manufacturers.
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions
began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused
to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when
these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until
the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they
advertised or marketed their car models jointly, although keeping their respective brands. On 28
June 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of
its cars Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG cars, the
Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl
Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and
at times his two sons also participated in the management of the company.
In 1890, mile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler
engines, and so laid the foundation of the automotive industry in France. In 1891,Auguste
Doriot and his Peugeot colleague Louis Rigoulot completed the longest trip by a petrol-powered
vehicle when their self-designed and built Daimler powered Peugeot Type 3 completed 2,100
kilometres (1375 miles) from Valentigney to Paris and Brest and back again. They were attached

to the first ParisBrestParis bicycle race, but finished 6 days after the winning cyclist, Charles
Terront.
The first design for an American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine was made in
1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York. Selden applied for a patent for an car in 1879,
but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen
years and a series of attachments to his application, on 5 November 1895, Selden was granted a
United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke car engine, which hindered, more
than encouraged, development of cars in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry
Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In 1893, the first running, gasoline-powered American car was built and road-tested by
the Duryea brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts. The first public run of the Duryea Motor
Wagon took place on 21 September 1893, on Taylor Street in Metro Center Springfield.[27][28] The
Studebaker Automobile Company, subsidiary of a long-established wagon and coach
manufacturer, started to build cars in 1897[29]:p.66 and commenced sales of electric vehicles in 1902
and gasoline vehicles in 1904.[30]
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.[31] Santler from Malvern is
recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car
in the country in 1894[32] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both
one-offs.[32] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Company, a
company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the
engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler.
[32]

In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion
Engine". In 1897, he built the first diesel engine.[25] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered
vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance
in the 1910s.
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.

Mass production
See also: Automotive industry

Ransom E. Olds

The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable cars was debuted by Ransom

Olds in 1902 at his Oldsmobile factory located in Lansing, Michigan and based upon
the assembly line techniques pioneered by Marc Isambard Brunel at the Portsmouth Block Mills,
England, in 1802. The assembly line style of mass production and interchangeable parts had
been pioneered in the U.S. by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield
Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts.[33] This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford,
beginning in 1914.

As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen-minute intervals, much faster than previous
methods, increasing productivity eightfold, while using less manpower (from 12.5 man-hours to 1
hour 33 minutes).[34] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry
fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fastdrying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark,
"any color as long as it's black".[34] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four
months' pay.[34]

Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919)

Ford's complex safety proceduresespecially assigning each worker to a specific location

instead of allowing them to roam aboutdramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination
of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries.
The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United
States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions
which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods.
In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the
founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in
1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon,
companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did
not, had disappeared.[34]
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 19101911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.

Ford Model T, 1927

Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing
plans often have heavily influenced car design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of
different makes of cars produced by one company, called the General Motors Companion Make
Program, so that buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved.

Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production
volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold
by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared
hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and
shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common.
Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of
production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two
hundred American car makers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great
Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[34]
In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and
soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practice of vertical integration,
buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well
as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most
British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra, had gone under. Citroen did the same in
France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and other cheap cars in reply such
as Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550,000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu,
and others could not compete.[34] Germany's first mass-manufactured car,
the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making
Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market. [34]
In Japan, automobile production was very limited before World War II. Only a handful of
companines were producing vehicles in limited numbers, and the vehicles were small, and threewheeled for commercial uses, like Daihatsu, or were the result of partnering with European
companies, like Isuzu building the Wolseley A-9 in 1922. Mitsubishi was also partnered
with Fiat and built the Mitsubishi Model A based on a Fiat
vehicle. Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, and Honda began as companies producing nonautomotive products before the war, switching to car production during the 1950s. Subaru was
produced from a conglomerate of six companies who banded together as Fuji Heavy Industries,
as a result of having been broken up under keiretsu legislation.

User interface
See also: Car controls

In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in
neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition
timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal
is the brake.

Cars are equipped with controls used for driving, passenger comfort and safety, normally
operated by a combination of the use of feet and hands, and occasionally by voice on newer
cars. Modern cars' controls are now standardised, such as the location for the accelerator and
brake, but this was not always the case. Controls are evolving in response to new technologies,
for example the electric car and the integration of mobile communications. Since the car was first
invented, its controls have become fewer and simpler through automation, for example all cars
once had a manual controls for the choke valve, clutch, ignition timing, and a crank instead of an

electric starter. However new controls have also been added to vehicles, making them more
complex. Examples include air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment.
Another trend is the replacement of physical knob and switches for secondary controls with
touchscreen controls such as BMW's iDrive and Ford's MyFord Touch.

Lighting
Main article: Automotive lighting
Cars are typically fitted with multiple types of lights, these are used to illuminate the way so that
the vehicle can be used at night, to indicate turn intentions of the driver, and to display that the
vehicle is braking. Additionally courtesy lights are usually fitted for the passengers.

Weight
The weight of a car influences fuel consumption and performance, with more weight resulting in
increased fuel consumption and decreased performance. According to research conducted
by Julian Allwood of the University of Cambridge, global energy use could be heavily reduced by
using lighter cars, and an average weight of 500 kg has been said to be well achievable.[35]
In some competitions such as the Shell Eco Marathon, average car weights of 45 kg have also
been achieved.[36][37] These cars are only single-seaters (still falling within the definition of a car,
although 4-seater cars are more common), but they nevertheless demonstrate the amount by
which car weights could still be reduced, and the subsequent lower fuel use (i.e. up to a fuel use
of 2560 km/l).[38]

Seating and body style

See also: Car body style
Most cars are designed to carry multiple occupants, often with four or five seats. Full-size
cars and large sport utility vehicles can often carry six, seven, or more occupants depending on
the arrangement of the seats. In the other hand, sports cars are most often designed with only
two seats. The differing needs for passenger capacity and their luggage or cargo space has
resulted in the availability of a large variety of body styles to meet individual consumer
requirements that include, among others, the sedan/saloon,hatchback, station wagon/estate,
and minivan.

Fuel and propulsion technologies

The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric carlaunched in December 2010

See also: Alternative fuel vehicle

Most cars in use today are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled
by deflagration of gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air
pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[5] Rapidly
increasing oil prices, concerns about oil dependence, tightening environmental laws and
restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for
cars. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development ofhybrid
vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. Vehicles using alternative fuels such

as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles andnatural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some
countries.
Oil consumption in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been abundantly pushed by car
growth; the 19852003 oil glut even fuelled the sales of low-economy vehicles
in OECD countries. The BRIC countries are adding to this consumption; in December 2009
China was briefly the largest car market.[39]

Safety
Main articles: Car safety, Traffic accident, Low speed vehicle and Epidemiology of motor vehicle
collisions

Result of a serious car accident

Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. [6] Mary
Ward became one of the first documented car fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland,
[40]
and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian car casualties in 1899 in New York
City.[41] There are now standard tests for safety in new cars, such as the EuroNCAP and the US
NCAP tests,[42] and insurance-industry-backed tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS).[43]
Worldwide, road traffic is becoming ever safer, in part due to efforts by the government to
implement safety features in cars, and by implementing safety components such as speed
bumps on the roads themselves.

Costs and benefits

Main articles: Economics of car usage, Car costs and Effects of the car on societies
The costs of car usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs and auto
maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance,[7] are weighed
against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits perceived and real of
vehicle usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and
convenience.[8]
Similarly the costs to society of encompassing car use, which may include those of: maintaining
roads, land use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of
its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that car use generates. The
societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of car
production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and
travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to
move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies. [9]

Environmental impact
See also: Exhaust gas
While there are different types of fuel that may power cars, most rely on gasoline or diesel.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that the average vehicle emits 8,887

grams of carbon dioxide per gallon of gasoline. The average vehicle running on diesel fuel will
emit 10,180 grams of carbon dioxide.[44] Many governments are using fiscal policies (such as road
tax or the US gas guzzler tax) to influence vehicle purchase decisions, with a low CO2 figure
often resulting in reduced taxation.[45] Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of
more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development
of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase
lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are
about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution. [46] In
the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated
regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per US gallon
(8.6 L/100 km; 33.0 mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more
frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per US gallon (10.6 L/100 km; 26.7 mpg-imp) in 2007.[47]
The manufacture of vehicles is resource intensive, and many manufacturers now report on the
environmental performance of their factories, including energy usage, waste and water
consumption.[48]
The growth in popularity of the car allowed cities to sprawl, therefore encouraging more travel by
car resulting in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of
diseases.[49]
Transportation (of all types including trucks, buses and cars) is a major contributor to air pollution
in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project
nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens
of metropolitan areas has worsened over the last decade.[50]
Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by cars via habitat destruction and pollution.
Over the lifetime of the average car the "loss of habitat potential" may be over 50,000 square
meters (540,000 sq ft) based on primary production correlations.[51] Animals are also killed every
year on roads by cars, referred to as Roadkill. More recent road developments are including
significant environmental mitigations in their designs such as green bridges to allow wildlife
crossings, and creating wildlife corridors.
Growth in the popularity of vehicles and commuting has led to traffic congestion. Brussels was
considered Europe's most congested city in 2011 according to TomTom.[52]

Future car technologies

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (June 2010)
Car propulsion technologies that are under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in
hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, biofuels, and various alternative fuels. Research
into future alternative forms of power include the development of fuel cells, Homogeneous
Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), Stirling engines,[53] and even using the stored energy of
compressed air or liquid nitrogen.
New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duralumin, fiberglass, carbon fiber,
and carbon nanotubes.
Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-yougo basis, through car share and carpool schemes.
Communication is also evolving due to connected car systems.

Autonomous car
Main article: Autonomous car

A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car

Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as driverless cars, already exist in prototype (such as
the Google driverless car), and are expected to be commercially available around 2020.
According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehiclesin
conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasurecould reduce
the world's 800 million vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades. [54] This would
be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of
the time, would be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This
would also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular needa bus could come for
a group of people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for
a short trip down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised
safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the US alone. [55]
[56]

Open source development

Main article: Open source car
There have been several projects aiming to develop a car on the principles of open design. The
projects include OScar, Riversimple (through 40fires.org)[57] and c,mm,n.[58]None of the projects
have reached significant success in terms of developing a car as a whole both from hardware
and software perspective and no mass production ready open-source based design have been
introduced as of late 2009. Some car hacking through on-board diagnostics (OBD) has been
done so far.[59]

Industry
Main articles: Automotive industry and Automotive market
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor
vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars andcommercial
vehicles were produced worldwide.[60]
In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new cars were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe, 21.4 million
in the Asia-Pacific Region, 19.4 million in the USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin America, 2.4
million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa.[61] The markets in North America and Japan
were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew strongly. Of the major
markets, China, Russia, Brazil and India saw the most rapid growth.
About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about
806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion US gallons
(980,000,000 m3) of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly,
especially in China and India.[12] In the opinion of some, urban transport systems based around
the car have proved unsustainable, consuming excessive energy, affecting the health of
populations, and delivering a declining level of service despite increasing investments. Many of
these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to
own and drive cars.[62][63][64] The sustainable transportmovement focuses on solutions to these
problems.

In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive industry, are experiencing
a combination of pricing pressures from raw material costs and changes in consumer buying
habits. The industry is also facing increasing external competition from the public transport
sector, as consumers re-evaluate their private vehicle usage.[65]Roughly half of the US's fifty-one
light vehicle plants are projected to permanently close in the coming years, with the loss of
another 200,000 jobs in the sector, on top of the 560,000 jobs lost this decade. [66] Combined with
robust growth in China, in 2009, this resulted in China becoming the largest car producer and
market in the world. China 2009 sales had increased to 13.6 million, a significant increase from
one million of domestic car sales in 2000.[67] Since then however, even in China and other BRIC
countries, the automotive production is again falling.[68]

Alternatives to the car

Main article: Alternatives to car use
Established alternatives for some aspects of car use include public transit such as
buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, tramways light rail, cycling, and walking. Carsharearrangements and carpooling are also increasingly popular, in the US and Europe.[69] For
example, in the US, some car-sharing services have experienced double-digit growth in revenue
and membership growth between 2006 and 2007. Services like car sharing offering a residents
to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods. [70] Bikeshare systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of US Cities.[71] Additional individual
modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to cars if they
prove to be socially accepted.[72]

See also
Cars portal

Main article: Outline of automobiles

Car costs

Car classification

Carfree city

List of countries by automobile production

List of countries by vehicles per capita

Lists of automobiles

Motor vehicle theft

Noise pollution

Peak car

Steering

Traffic collision

Traffic congestion

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Further reading

Halberstam, David, The Reckoning, New York, Morrow,

1986. ISBN 0-688-04838-2

Kay, Jane Holtz, Asphalt nation : how the automobile took over
America, and how we can take it back, New York, Crown,
1997. ISBN 0-517-58702-5

Heathcote Williams, Autogeddon, New York, Arcade,

1991. ISBN 1-55970-176-5

Wolfgang Sachs: For love of the automobile: looking back into

the history of our desires, Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1992, ISBN 0-520-06878-5

External links
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