Every year on January 6th, the United States celebrates National Technology Day to recognize the way innovations have changed the world. From 3D printers to smartphones, there are countless technologies that shape nearly every aspect of our lives.
In particular, technology has played a huge role in making cars safer and more reliable year after year. So, in honor of Technology Day, we’re going to take a look back at 10 of the most important advancements in automotive history.
Drivers of a certain age will remember a time when cars lacked features, such as seat belts and power steering, that are now considered commonplace. Yet here we are today with vehicles that boast cutting-edge technology, dependable powertrains, and the latest safety functions—all of which are the result of decades of innovation.
With that in mind, let’s take a look back at ten technologies that played a major role in making vehicles as safe, reliable, and comfortable as they are today.
Today’s vehicles often have advanced starting systems, with features like remote start and push-button ignition. But in the early days of the automobile, all engines had a crank that the driver needed to rotate by hand to get the car started.
Hand cranks were not just inconvenient but also dangerous because they delivered a serious kickback. In fact, hand cranks were so dangerous that they were the leading cause of automotive-relatedinjuries (often resulting in death) during the early 1900s.
Naturally, the electric starter was greeted with much enthusiasm when it was first introduced as a replacement for the hand crank in 1912. With the electric starter motor, drivers could start their vehicle with just the turn of a key because the starter motor engaged and cranked the engine with power from the battery.
The invention of the starter motor gave people the ability to start their cars without the risk of severe personal injury. What’s more, because many women did not have the upper body strength to operate a hand crank, the introduction of the starter motor allowed more women to begin driving on their own.
All internal-combustion-powered vehicles use a transmission to manipulate rotational force from the engine and transfer that force to the drive wheels. In the early days of the automobile, all vehicles came with a manual transmission that required the driver to shift gears.
It wasn’t until 1940 that General Motors introduced the first mass-produced automatic transmission, called the Hydra-Matic. Like today’s transmissions, the Hydra-Matic used hydraulic fluid and planetary gearsets to change gears. The unit also relied on a fluid coupling device (similar to a modern torque converter) to take the place of a manual transmission clutch and prevent the engine from stalling.
Shortly after, the first true torque converter was introduced in the Buick Dynaflow transmission. A torque converter prevents the vehicle from stalling at a stop and multiplies engine torque under acceleration to increase pulling power.
Today, most of the vehicles in the United States have an automatic transmission with a torque converter. According to Cars.com, 98.7% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. during the 2020 model year were equipped with an automatic transmission.
Although crude versions of the seat belt date back to the 1800s, the modern, three-point harness seat belt didn’t make its way into a production vehicle until 1959, when the design debuted in the Volvo PV544.
In the beginning, most consumers believed seat belts could cause internal injury and potentially trap occupants inside their cars. As a result, automakers often excluded seat belts from production vehicles during the first half of the 20th century.
But the auto industry’s stance on seat belts began to change in 1965 when Ralph Nader released his critique of the industry called Unsafe at Any Speed. By the time 1968 rolled around, a federal law was in place that required all new cars sold in the United States to be fitted with three-point seat belts.
Today, every state except for New Hampshire requires all adults to wear a seat belt while traveling in a car—and that’s a good thing because seat belts have saved more than a million lives over the years.
During the first half of the 20th century, vehicles had manual steering that required the driver to exert significant force to turn the front wheels. Things got easier in 1951, though, when power steering made its debut on a Chrysler Imperial.
All modern cars now have power steering—a feature that assists the driver in turning the front wheels. The power steering system makes the steering wheel easier to turn by augmenting the force the driver exerts on the vehicle’s mechanical steering gear.
Most vehicles have electric power steering (EPS) or hydraulic power steering. EPS, which is found in nearly all new cars, uses an electric motor to act on the steering gear and provide steering assist. Meanwhile, hydraulic power steering systems use an engine-driven pump and hydraulic fluid to provide the same function.
Most cars came with manual brakes until the 1960s. Manual brakes require the driver to rely primarily on their leg muscles to exert the force needed to apply the brakes, which makes stopping difficult.
Power brakes were introduced to make production vehicles easier to stop and improve braking performance. The technology applies force to the master cylinder—the device that activates the brakes—thereby reducing the effort the driver needs to exert on the brake pedal.
Although most systems use a vacuum-operated brake booster to provide braking assist, there are also setups (referred to as hydro-boost) that use hydraulic fluid. Electronic brake booster assemblies are also becoming more common.
These days, we take for granted being able to turn on the air conditioning and get cold air out of the dashboard vents. But there was a time when cars didn’t have any air conditioning. Instead, some vehicles had giant, externally-mounted evaporative coolers (also known as swamp coolers), while other models had nothing to cool the interior at all.
Air conditioning as we know it didn’t become a common option on production vehicles until the 1950s. Since then, automotive air conditioning systems have used refrigerant to remove heat from the cabin.
The process starts in a device called the compressor, which pressurizes and distributes vapor refrigerant into the system. Eventually, the refrigerant enters a radiator-type device called the evaporator core. A blower motor then forces air through the evaporator core, causing heat to be transferred to the refrigerant, cooling the cabin and keeping occupants comfortable.
Gas-powered vehicles rely on an ignition system to create the high voltage needed to fire the spark plugs and ignite the air-fuel mixture inside of the engine. Before the mid-1970s, nearly all applications used a mechanical distributor that contained a set of points that were used to control ignition system timing (when the spark plugs fire).
Ignition systems with a mechanical distributor were generally high-maintenance and unreliable. Luckily, electronic ignition systems were introduced towards the end of the 1970s. Electronic ignition did away with the mechanical points inside of the distributor by using an electronic triggering device (pickup coil, crankshaft sensor, etc.) to tell an electronic module when to fire the spark plugs.
Electronic ignition allows for more precise ignition timing, which greatly improves vehicle reliability and fuel economy. The technology also helped make possible the advanced computer engine management systems found in today’s vehicles.
Before the invention of fuel injection, vehicles came with a type of mechanical fuel delivery device called a carburetor. Carburetors relied on manifold vacuum, atmospheric pressure, and airflow to pull fuel from a bowl and deliver it to the engine.
Anyone who’s driven a vintage vehicle knows that carburetors don’t work well under certain conditions and tend to cause the engine to stall out when cold. What’s more, carburetors require constant tuning for optimum performance.
By the 1980s, automakers started acknowledging the pitfalls of carburetors and fitting production vehicles with electronic fuel injection. Gasoline electronic fuel injection relies on a control module to determine (based on input from various sensors) how much fuel the engine needs and when. The control module then operates the fuel injector(s) to meet the engine’s needs.
The introduction of fuel injection is largely responsible for making vehicles as reliable as they are today. Fuel injection also makes it possible for the engine to be fitted with a computer management system for better performance and fuel economy.
American automakers started experimenting with airbags in production vehicles in the 1970s, but the technology didn’t become commonplace until the 1990s. In 1998, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act went into effect, requiring all new vehicles sold in the United States to have both driver and front passenger airbags.
Airbags are often referred to as supplemental restraints because the technology is meant to supplement the vehicle’s seatbelts. A typical airbag system consists of two or more nylon bags folded up into individual compartments. If there’s a crash of sufficient force, the pressurized gas inflates the airbags, causing them to deploy to protect occupants from severe injury.
Researchers believe that airbags reduce the risk of death during a head-on collision by 30%. In 2017, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also estimated that frontal airbags had saved over 50,000 lives.
Most automakers began fitting their cars with computer-controlled engine management systems in the 1980s. The technology uses sensors and an onboard computer to minimize vehicle emissions, enhance driveability, and improve reliability.
Without computer-controlled engine management systems, many of the advanced features found on today’s vehicles would not be possible. The engine management system plays a role in everything from fuel-saving functions—such as cylinder deactivation and variable valve timing—to adaptive cruise control.
Automotive technology has changed a great deal over the years, and there are even more remarkable breakthroughs on the horizon as the industry is now evolving at an increasingly rapid pace.
The future promises an abundance of advancements—ranging from autonomous driving systems to electric powertrains—that will shape the automotive industry and the entire world. There’s no limit to what the future might hold.
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