Cars

An automobile is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor. Different types of automobiles include cars, buses, trucks, vans, and motorcycles, with cars being the most popular. more...

The term is derived from Greek 'autos' (self) and Latin 'movére' (move), referring to the fact that it 'moves by itself'. Earlier terms for automobile include 'horseless carriage' and 'motor car'. As of 2005 there are 600 million cars worldwide (0.074 per capita), of which 220 million are located in the United States (0.75 per capita).

History

The modern automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine was invented in Germany by Karl Benz. Even though Karl Benz is credited with the invention of the modern automobile, several German engineers worked on building automobiles at the same time. These inventors are: Karl Benz, who was granted a patent dated January 29, 1886 in Mannheim for the vehicle he built in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart in 1888 (also inventors of the first motor bike), and in 1888/89 German-Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus in Vienna, although Marcus didn't go beyond the prototype stage.

Steam powered vehicles

Steam-powered self-propelled cars were devised in the late 18th century. The first self-propelled car was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769, it could attain speeds of up to 6 km/h (3.7 mi/h). In 1771 he designed another steam-driven car, which ran so fast that it rammed into a wall, producing the world's first car accident.

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