Everything about Automobiles totally explained
An
automobile (via French from Greek
auto, self and Latin
mobilis moving, a
vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or
motor car (usually shortened to just
car) is a
wheeled
passenger vehicle that carries its own
engine or
motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles 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. However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks.
There were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every eleven people) as of 2002.
History
Although
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran. Others claim
Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a
Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam-powered 'car' around 1672. What isn't in doubt is that
Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his
Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, the first truly successful steam-powered road vehicle.
François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first
internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fuelled by a mixture of
hydrogen and
oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine. The design wasn't very successful, as was the case with
Samuel Brown,
Samuel Morey, and
Etienne Lenoir who each produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.
In November 1881 French inventor
Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.
An automobile powered by an
Otto gasoline engine was built in
Mannheim,
Germany by
Karl Benz in
1885 and granted a
patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie. which was founded in 1883.
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 is generally acknowledged as the
inventor of the modern automobile.
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 followed by
Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. 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.
Cost and benefits to society
Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile 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 automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of societies.
Impacts on society and environment
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 got worse over the last decade. In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 lbs (5
tonnes) of
carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen. Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in
car collisions, which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number. Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and
obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.
Improving the positive and reducing the negative impacts
Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (for example
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. In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at in 2007.
Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that's less
polluting than conventional
petroleum powered vehicles.
Future car technologies
Automobile propulsion technology 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, and even using the stored energy of compressed air or
liquid nitrogen.
New materials which may replace steel car bodies include
duraluminum,
fiberglass,
carbon fiber, and
carbon nanotubes.
Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a
pay-as-you-go basis, through such schemes as
City Car Club in the
UK,
Mobility in
mainland Europe, and
Zipcar in the US.
Alternatives to the automobile
Established alternatives for some aspects of automobile use include
public transit (
buses,
trolleybuses,
trains,
subways,
monorails,
tramways),
cycling,
walking,
rollerblading and
skateboarding.
Car-share arrangements are also increasingly popular–the U.S. market leader has experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007, offering a service that enables urban residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods.
Bike-share systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of U.S. Cities. Additional individual modes of transport, such as
personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be socially accepted.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Automobiles'.
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