What’s in your vehicle? For people with a new car in the driveway, the answer is: a lot. Thanks to @MagnaInternationalTV for sponsoring this video!
Cars have only been around for about 140 years, but in that time, we’ve gone from 10-mph buggies (the Benz Patent Motor Car, which led to Mercedes-Benz cars) to the 2,000-horsepower Rimac Nevera and 300-mph Bugatti Chiron. We’re also entering the era of the electric car, and the era of cars talking to each other — because for automation and self-driving to work, future automotive technology has to involve car-to-car communication.
In this video, we’re going to run through every era of automotive technology and technical innovation: the groundbreaking first car, modern tech, and our high-tech future. We’re also going to talk about what kinds of gadgets are in your car that you can’t see, the engineering behind those gadgets, what trends and developments we’ll see in the future, and where cars come from (it’s not entirely the manufacturer).
If you want a fun bonus timeline, here you go!
- 1886: Benz Patent Motor Car (with a gas engine) paves the way for the modern automotive industry, although there were some electric buggies before it.
- 1912: Cadillac introduced the first electric starter. Before this, people had to hand-crank gas cars to get them going, and the engine kickback could break their arms or injure them in other ways.
- 1913: Ford began building cars on the first moving automotive assembly line. Model T production time went from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes.
- 1921: The first automatic transmission.
- 1930s and ‘40s: The first Volkswagen Beetle, Willys-Overland Jeep, and Ferrari.
- 1948: An early version of cruise control got patented.
- 1949: Nash began offering seat belts in cars, but the U.S. didn’t mandate them until 1968.
- 1953: Automotive air bags were patented.
- 1966: Cadillac introduced my favorite car feature: seat heaters!
- Mid-20th century: Automakers began a long and major shift from carburetors to fuel injection.
- 1990: Mazda introduced the first GPS-based navigation system in the Eunos Cosmo.
- 1997: The Toyota Prius launched, on its way to becoming a household-name modern hybrid.
- 2000s and 2010s: Automakers increasingly began offering driver-assistance features like adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warnings, and assisted lane-keeping.
- 2005: The Bugatti Veyron broke 250 mph, compared to the Benz Patent Motor Car’s speed of 10 mph.
- 2012: The U.S. mandated four-wheel anti-lock brake systems, and for the time, the Tesla Model S made electric cars cool.
- 2018: Waymo began its commercial self-driving-car service in Phoenix.
- 2018: The U.S. mandated backup cameras on all new vehicles.
- 2021: As electric cars became more common, Croatian automaker Rimac introduced the Nevera: a 2,000-horsepower electric supercar. I drove it a few years ago, and it quite literally changed how I view speed.
Thanks for watching my YouTube channel. Enjoy the video! If you want to watch more car reviews and motorsports content, you can check out my other videos as well.
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