The Evolving Automobile

           We have reached an interesting milestone in my household. All four members of my family, mom, dad, and two sons, are all above the driving age. Having two teenagers who can come and go with vehicles to school, sports, and dates is not any easier than worrying about them putting something in a light socket when they were four. In fact, it may be more difficult. There is no simple socket protector to install to keep them safe. 

           As we have watched our children evolve, develop, and mature enough to earn the responsibility of being able to drive, I have noticed that the car has evolved much the same. A little more than a decade ago we took the family on vacation and rented a car. After a full day of airline travel, we finally got into the rental. The boys were tired and hot and did not want to wait on the AC to cool the vehicle off. I had told the boys to roll down the windows if they were too hot, and what we heard next was “where is the button.” My husband and I looked at each other and just chuckled. We had never thought that our children would have no idea how a rollup window worked, but after I thought about it for a while there have been many transitions to the automobile.

What about the dimmer switch? In 1925, the dimmer switch was located on the steering column. This changed in 1927, when it was moved to the floor. Why did the location of the dimmer switch change? The automobile makers decided it was too much of a distraction on the steering column and agreed to move it to the floor. For those of you who remember the floorboard dimmer are at youngest, middle aged.

The first vehicle I can remember was Fred Flintstone’s foot powered Flintmoblie. The transitions and improvements began there and have not stopped since. The ModelTs led to Model A’s which eventually led to the mid 50’s Chevy and the pick-up truck. Those wonderful American Graffiti type drive-ins and car hops gave way to the muscle cars of the 60’s, then the gas regulation shifted focus from output and performance to efficiency and miles per gallon. Those wind-up windows with crank handles, manual steering and brakes, Chrome Hurst shifter levers, and leaded gas all eventually fell to the wayside.

           Would it surprise you to find out that electric vehicles are not a new concept? The first automobiles ran on steam and electricity. You may also be surprised to learn the first vehicles were developed in the late 1700s. These first vehicles powered by steam used it as an energy source that had been used for many years to power trains which promoted the western expansion of the United States. However, it was not until the 1870s that steam power became more practical for small vehicles. Despite improvements, there were still a lot of shortcomings. Steam-powered vehicles took a very long time to start up and the range was limited. In the early 1800s, inventors around the world began building electric-powered buggies. A few decades later inventors in England and France created vehicles that were much closer to modern-day EVs. In 1890, William Morrison built the first electric car in the U.S. The car could go 14 miles per hour and fit six people. It was very rudimentary, but it got interest going in America. Meanwhile, in 1898, Ferdinand Porsche did something revolutionary. He created the first hybrid vehicle that was powered by electricity and gas. It was a blueprint for the hybrids that would be built more than 100 years later. This is a classic example of the bullwhip effect... Small changes in demand, as they continue to create value upstream created this effect.

As electronic vehicles continue to evolve and gain market share, they will continue to change and transform in the decades to come. If the United States wanted to move to a fully electric fleet by 2050, to meet President Biden’s goal of net zero emissions, the sales of gasoline-powered vehicles would likely have to end altogether by around 2035, a heavy lift. This would be the biggest transformation in the automotive industry ever. Just think of how many improvements and upgrades have happened in the last 25 years with the invention of the internet and fast-moving digital changes. Not long ago, a cross-country road trip required a bundle of fold out maps or a thick Rand McNally Atlas. No more. Now you just tell your GPS where you are headed, and it guides you through every turn. Automakers began to offer navigation systems that relied at least partially on Global Positioning System satellites in the mid-to-late 1990s. Oldsmobile was the first in the U.S, with GuideStar in 1995, but the U.S. government deliberately degraded the signals given to GuideStar. In 2000, the true precision of GPS came to civilians, and soon after, automakers began developing and installing systems in new luxury vehicles like the BMW 7-Series. It was not long before the aftermarket for portable GPS units exploded with new dash-top units. These systems work so well and are so convenient that paper maps have basically disappeared from vehicle glove boxes. The significance of Bluetooth's wireless technology to the automobile industry was not completely apparent when it launched in the late 1990s. But by 2001 the company had its first in-car kit for talking on your phone hands-free. Today the technology is in just about every car and installed on just about every cell phone.

Until the early 2000s, the only ways to know what was happening behind your car as you backed out of the driveway were to look at your trusty mirrors or to crane your neck and look out the rear windshield. Neither approach could cover the area directly behind the car, putting children and pets at risk. In 2002, Infiniti launched a lifesaver with the first backup camera available in the new Q45. With a camera mounted below the trunk lid and a monitor in the dash, these early systems saved lives and made parking far easier for thousands of car owners. Later in the decade, Nissan introduced its Around View Monitor, which used multiple cameras to produce a 360-degree perimeter picture of the area around the car. Today all new cars come with a basic backup camera standard. The technology is so valuable in preventing injuries that it is required on all passenger vehicles which has been mandated since 2018.

Airbags can be traced all the way back to the 1950s, but those forward-thinking early designs were not practical or reliable enough to go into cars. Luxury carmakers like Mercedes-Benz began to use modern airbags in the 1980s, and Ford made airbags standard on all its vehicles in 1990. It was the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, though, that required the safety tech on all cars by 1998. This law made the airbag the universal lifesaver we know today.

Electronic vehicle diagnostics has changed how we repair and determine the overall health of the internal workings of your vehicle. OBD II allows technicians and home mechanics to find out exactly what was wrong with their car through specific codes accessed by a 16-pin connector. Want to know why your engine was running poorly? OBD II could tell you that a specific cylinder was misfiring. OBD II allowed the adaptation of far more complex and precise air and fuel management in the engine. And this more sophisticated control over the engine has produced improved fuel economy as well as the enhanced performance we have seen in the last two decades.

Even the COVID-19 pandemic will change the evolution of the automobile. To put it plainly, the Coronavirus pandemic has been the primary cause of the computer chip shortage. The reasons why are numerous, global-wide shut-downs caused production to freeze up and stock to drain, the demand for electronics boomed, increasing competition between Tech Giants and Automakers for the dwindling number of chips. Automakers underestimated consumers' demand for cars in the second quarter of 2020 and decreased production, further spiking demand. The cost of silicon has risen substantially due to the mass production of the COVID-19 vaccines; the silicon needed to make the vials is the same as the silicon used to manufacture chips and personal computers.

This evolution is very fascinating to watch and study. During our lifetimes, we will most likely witness some of biggest changes and evolutions in the automotive production and development. These upcoming decades are sure to be exciting and full of new technological advances which will make the vehicles we know now seem like the Flintmobile that Fred loved so much.