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Steam powered car 1769
16th century triple wheeled vehicle that moved at the speed of a walk. -
The first car powered 1808
Internal combustion engine that was fueled by hydrogen -
The first gasoline powered combustion engine built 1870
The first gasoline powered combustion engine, which he placed on a pushcart, building four progressively more sophisticated combustion-engine cars over a 10-to-15-year span that influenced later cars. -
The first automobile. On January 29, 1886
This automobile was powered by a single cylinder four-stroke engine by Karl Benz -
Electric ignition starters 1911
It was first used in the Cadillac company in 1912 -
First American car with 4-wheel hydraulic brakes 1922.
They used hydraulic systems pressure evenly applied to each wheel of the car. -
Flashing turn signals introduced 1935.
A Delaware company uses a thermal interrupter switch to create flashing turn signals. -
Jeep is designed in 1940 during World War II
Karl Pabst designed the Jeep at workout in World War II. -
In the 1950s, cruise control was developed.
Ralph Teeter, a blind man sensing by his ears develops cruise control mechanism that a driver can set cars at steady speed. -
Electronic fuel injection system developed in 1966.
The injection system keeps a car's engine running at most efficiency. -
Airbags became standard in the 1970s.
Originally it was for the driver side only but now today it appears to be on the front passenger's side as well. -
CD players come along in 1984
Technology called CDX-1 became the first car CD player, eventually supplanting cassette tapes, which had become old technology. -
Connected cars in 1996
General Motors launched connected cars with its OnStar system, which used your mobile phone to call 911 in an accident. Today the technology links with the phones’ GPS location to guide the emergency services straight to the car. -
Bluetooth in 2001
The first hands-free bluetooth kit appeared in 2001. Later that year, an even better bluetooth technology came out that worked with speech recognition. These days bluetooth is integrated with the cars’ infotainment system. -
Self-driving cars in 2020
2020 is the projected release date of Google’s self-driving car, the Waymo. It completed its first driverless ride on public roads in 2015 in Austin Texas with a blind man behind the wheel.
