Car

The English word car is believed to originate from Latin / "wheeled vehicle" or (via Old North French) Middle English ' "two-wheeled cart", both of which in turn derive from Gaulish ' "chariot". It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon. The word also occurs in other Celtic languages. "Motor car", attested from 1895, is the usual formal term in British English. "Autocar", a variant likewise attested from 1895 and literally meaning "self-propelled car", is now considered archaic. "Horseless carriage" is attested from 1895. "Automobile", a classical compound derived from Ancient Greek ' () "self" and Latin ' "movable", entered English from French and was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897. It fell out of favour in Britain and is now used chiefly in North America, where the abbreviated form "auto" commonly appears as an adjective in compound formations like "auto industry" and "auto mechanic". ==History==

) , Paris , the inventor of the modern car , the first modern car, built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept , the first long distance driver was the first four-wheeled electric car , a cradle of the car with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach working there at the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and place of the modern day headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Group and Porsche In 1649, Hans Hautsch of Nuremberg built a clockwork-driven carriage. The first steam-powered vehicle was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a scale-model toy for the Kangxi Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger. It is not known with certainty if Verbiest's model was successfully built or run. He also constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. Coincidentally, in 1807, the Swiss inventor François 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 Niépces' Pyréolophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium 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 and oxygen. who each built vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by internal combustion engines. In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a three-wheeled car powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity. Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on cars at about the same time, the year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use—when the German Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen; he is generally acknowledged as the inventor of the car. In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle. His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 in Mannheim, Germany. He was awarded the patent for his invention upon his application on 29 January 1886 (under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., 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 four-wheeler was introduced along with a cheaper model. They were also 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 product line. Because France was more open to early cars, more were initially built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany. In August 1888, Bertha Benz, the wife and business partner of Carl Benz, undertook the first road trip by car, to prove the road-worthiness of her husband's invention. In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor. During the last years of the 19th 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 the Czech company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra) in 1897, the Präsident automobil. Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and sold their first car in 1892 under the brand name Daimler. 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 at 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 Daimler-Mercedes that was installed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a limited production run of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model of the DMG car was produced and named Mercedes after the Maybach engine, which generated 35 hp. Maybach left DMG shortly thereafter and opened his own business. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers. In 1890, Émile 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-driven vehicle when their self-designed and built Daimler-powered Peugeot Type 3 completed from Valentigney to Paris and Brest and back again. They were attached to the first Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race, but finished six days after the winning cyclist, Charles Terront. The first design for an American car with a petrol internal combustion engine was made in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York. Selden applied for a patent for a car in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of 16 years and a series of attachments to his application, on 5 November 1895, Selden was granted a US patent () 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, petrol-driven 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. Studebaker, subsidiary of a long-established wagon and coach manufacturer, started to build cars in 1897 and commenced sales of electric vehicles in 1902 and petrol vehicles in 1904. 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. Santler from Malvern is recognised by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-driven car in the country in 1894, followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs. Mass production founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897. is the best-selling car of all-time. Large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable cars was started by Ransom Olds in 1901 at his Oldsmobile factory in Lansing, Michigan, and based upon stationary 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 US by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1913 with the world's first moving assembly line for cars at the Highland Park Ford Plant. As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in 15-minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold while using less labor (from 12.5 manhours to 1 hour 33 minutes). It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colours available before 1913, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black". 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 US's economic rise. The assembly line forced workers to move at a certain pace with very repetitive motions, which led to more output per worker, while other countries used less productive methods. In the automotive industry, its success was dominant and quickly spread worldwide, with the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark in 1923, and Ford Germany in 1925; in 1921, Citroën was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines or risk going bankrupt; by 1930, 250 companies that did not have assembly lines disappeared. The 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 1910–1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes. Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans have often 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, makers shared parts with one another, resulting in lower costs across all price ranges. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared bonnet, 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. 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' British subsidiary (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41 per cent of total British car production. Most British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra, had gone under. Citroën 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. Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Rüsselsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5 per cent of the market. In Japan, car production was very limited before World War II. Only a handful of companies produced vehicles in limited numbers, and these were small, three-wheeled for commercial use, like Daihatsu, or the result of partnerships 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 non-automotive products before the war, then switched to car production in the 1950s. Kiichiro Toyoda's decision to take Toyoda Loom Works into automobile manufacturing would eventually lead to the formation of Toyota Motor Corporation, the world's largest automobile manufacturer. Subaru, meanwhile, was formed from a conglomerate of six companies that banded together as Fuji Heavy Industries, as a result of having been broken up under keiretsu legislation. == Components and design ==

Propulsion and fuels electric car , but many cars only have one motor. Fossil fuels Most cars in use in the mid 2020s run on petrol burnt in an internal combustion engine (ICE). Some cities ban older, more polluting petrol-driven cars, and some countries plan to ban sales in the future. However, some environmental groups say this phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles must be brought forward to limit climate change. Production of petrol-fuelled cars peaked in 2017. Other hydrocarbon fossil fuels also burnt by deflagration (rather than detonation) in ICE cars include diesel, autogas, and CNG. Removal of fossil fuel subsidies, concerns about oil dependence, tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for cars. This includes hybrid vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles, and hydrogen vehicles. As of 2025 one in four cars sold is electric but, despite rapid growth, less than one in twenty cars on the world's roads were fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars by the end of 2024. Cars for racing or speed records have sometimes employed jet or rocket engines, but these are impractical for common use. Oil consumption has increased rapidly in the 20th and 21st centuries because there are more cars; the 1980s oil glut even fuelled the sales of low-economy vehicles in OECD countries. Batteries In almost all hybrid (even mild hybrid) and pure electric cars, regenerative braking recovers and returns to a battery some energy which would otherwise be wasted by friction brakes getting hot. Although all cars must have friction brakes (front disc brakes and either disc or drum rear brakes) for emergency stops, regenerative braking improves efficiency, particularly in city driving. User interface 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 for driving, passenger comfort, and safety, normally operated by a combination of feet and hands, and occasionally by voice in 21st-century cars. These controls include a steering wheel, pedals for operating the brakes and controlling the car's speed (and, in a manual transmission car, a clutch pedal), a shift lever or stick for changing gears, and several buttons and dials for turning on lights, ventilation, and other functions. Modern cars' controls are now standardised, such as the location of 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. Some of the original controls are no longer required. For example, all cars once had 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. These include air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Another trend is the replacement of physical knobs and switches with secondary controls, such as touchscreen controls, such as BMW's iDrive and Ford's MyFord Touch. Another change is that while early cars' pedals were physically linked to the brake mechanism and throttle, in the early 2020s, cars have increasingly replaced these physical linkages with electronic controls. Electronics and interior for fuses and circuit breakers Cars are typically equipped with interior lighting which can be toggled manually or be set to light up automatically with doors open, an entertainment system which originated from car radios, sideways windows which can be lowered or raised electrically (manually on earlier cars), and one or multiple auxiliary power outlets for supplying portable appliances such as mobile phones, portable fridges, power inverters, and electrical air pumps from the on-board electrical system. More costly upper-class and luxury cars are equipped with features earlier such as massage seats and collision avoidance systems. Dedicated automotive fuses and circuit breakers prevent damage from electrical overload. Lighting daytime running lights Cars are typically fitted with multiple types of lights. These include headlights, which are used to illuminate the way ahead and make the car visible to other users, so that the vehicle can be used at night; in some jurisdictions, daytime running lights; red brake lights to indicate when the brakes are applied; amber turn signal lights to indicate the turn intentions of the driver; white-coloured reverse lights to illuminate the area behind the car (and indicate that the driver will be or is reversing); and on some vehicles, additional lights (e.g., side marker lights) to increase the visibility of the car. Interior ceiling lights in the car are usually fitted for the driver and passengers. Some vehicles also have a boot light and, more rarely, an engine compartment light. Weight and size extended-length SUV weighs (gross weight). During the late 20th and early 21st century, cars increased in weight due to batteries, modern steel safety cages, anti-lock brakes, airbags, and "more-powerful—if more efficient—engines" and, , typically weigh between . Heavier cars are safer for the driver from a crash perspective, but more dangerous for other vehicles and road users. Some places tax heavier cars more: It has been suggested that one benefit of subsidising charging infrastructure is that cars can use lighter batteries. Seating and body style Most cars are designed to carry multiple occupants, often with four or five seats. Cars with five seats typically seat two passengers in the front and three in the rear. Full-size cars and large sport utility vehicles can often carry six, seven, or more occupants, depending on seat arrangement. On the other hand, sports cars are most often designed with only two seats. Utility vehicles like pickup trucks combine seating with extra cargo or utility functionality. 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, coupe, and minivan. ==Safety==

Traffic collisions are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. and Henry Bliss one of the US's first pedestrian car casualties in 1899 in New York City. There are now standard tests for safety in new cars, such as the Euro and US NCAP tests, and insurance-industry-backed tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). However, not all such tests consider the safety of people outside the car, such as drivers of other cars, pedestrians and cyclists. Some countries are tightening safety regulations for new cars, for example to mandate data recorders and automated braking. ==Costs and benefits==

is an issue in many major cities (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing). 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, During the 1920s, cars had another benefit: "[c]ouples finally had a way to head off on unchaperoned dates, plus they had a private space to snuggle up close at the end of the night." Similarly the costs to society of car use may include; maintaining roads, land use, air pollution, noise pollution, road congestion, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life; and can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that car use generates. Societal benefits may include economic benefits, such as job and wealth creation, from car production and maintenance, transportation provision, societal wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability of humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies. ==Environmental effects==

Car production and use have a large number of environmental impacts: it causes local air pollution plastic pollution and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Cars and vans caused 10% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2022. , electric cars produce about half the emissions over their lifetime as diesel and petrol cars. This is set to improve as countries produce more of their electricity from low-carbon sources. Cars consume almost a quarter of world oil production as of 2019. Cars are a major cause of air pollution, which stems from exhaust gas in diesel and petrol cars and from dust from brakes, tyres, and road wear. Larger cars pollute more. Heavy metals and microplastics (from tyres) are also released into the environment, during production, use, and at the end of life. Mining related to car manufacturing and oil spills both cause water pollution. Vehicle emission standards ban the sale of new highly pollution cars. Many countries plan to stop selling fossil cars altogether between 2025 and 2050. Various cities have implemented low-emission zones, banning old fossil fuel and Amsterdam is planning to ban fossil fuel cars completely. Some cities make it easier for people to choose other forms of transport, such as cycling. ==Social issues==

Mass production of personal motor vehicles in the United States and other developed countries with extensive territories, such as Australia, Argentina, and France, vastly increased individual and group mobility and greatly expanded economic development in urban, suburban, exurban, and rural areas. Growth in the popularity of cars and commuting has led to traffic congestion. Moscow, Istanbul, Bogotá, Mexico City and São Paulo were the world's most congested cities in 2018 according to INRIX, a data analytics company. Access to cars In the United States, the transport divide and car dependency resulting from domination of car-based transport systems presents barriers to employment in low-income neighbourhoods, with many low-income individuals and families forced to run cars they cannot afford in order to maintain their income. Dependency on automobiles by African Americans may result in exposure to the hazards of driving while black and other types of racial discrimination related to buying, financing and insuring them. Health impact Air pollution from cars increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease. It can also harm pregnancies: more children are born too early or with lower birth weight. When places are designed around cars, children have fewer opportunities to go places by themselves and lose opportunities to become more independent. ==Emerging car technologies==

Intensive development of conventional battery electric vehicles is continuing into the 2020s, for example lithium iron phosphate batteries are safer and cheaper. Sensors such as lidar are more used. Other car technologies that are under development include wireless charging. Software is increasing and may have many new uses, for example automatically not hitting pedestrians. New materials which may replace steel car bodies include aluminium, fiberglass, carbon fiber, biocomposites, and carbon nanotubes. Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-you-go basis, through car share and carpool schemes. Communication is also evolving due to connected car systems. Open-source cars are not widespread. Microwave weapons which can disable cars are being tested. Self-driving car shown at Stanford University is a driverless car. Fully self-driving vehicles, also known as autonomous cars, already exist as robotaxis in some locations. Laws for the regulation of self-driving cars will need updating before widespread deployment can happen. Car sharing Car-share arrangements and carpooling are also increasingly popular, in the US and Europe. Services like car sharing offer residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighbourhoods. ==Industry==

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles, more than three-quarters of which are cars. In 2020, there were 56 million cars manufactured worldwide, down from 67 million the previous year. The automotive industry in China produces by far the most (20 million in 2020), followed by Japan (seven million), then Germany, South Korea, and India. The largest market is China, followed by the US. There are around 1.644 billion cars in use worldwide as of January 2025; they burn over of petrol and diesel fuel yearly, consuming about of energy. The number of cars is increasing rapidly in China and India. 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 investment. Many of these negative effects fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars. The sustainable transport movement focuses on solutions to these problems. The car industry is also facing increasing competition from the public transport sector, as some people re-evaluate their use of private vehicles. In July 2021, the European Commission introduced the "Fit for 55" legislation package, outlining crucial directives for the automotive sector's future. According to this package, by 2035, all newly sold cars in the European market must be Zero-emissions vehicles. == Alternatives ==

in Paris, France, is the largest bikesharing system outside China. Established alternatives for some aspects of car use include public transport such as busses, trolleybusses, trains, subways, tramways, light rail, cycling, and walking. Bicycle sharing systems have been established in China and many European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programmes have been developed in large US cities. Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to cars if they prove to be socially accepted. A study which checked the costs and the benefits of introducing Low Traffic Neighbourhood in London found the benefits overpass the costs approximately by 100 times in the first 20 years and the difference is growing over time. == Car motorsport ==

Motorsport is a sport involving high speed racing and drifting. It includes various racing series such as Formula One, IndyCar Series, NASCAR, World Rally Championship and MotoGP. ==See also==