From seat belts to car alarms, parking brakes, airbags, and roaring engines, a lot of technical innovation has preceded the electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous driving technology currently on our doorstep. There are some fascinating stories behind these innovative vehicles and how they forever changed or made automotive history.
1. The Benz Patent–Motorwagen (1886)
Though Carl Benz did not precisely invent the first automobile whole cloth, he did combine petroleum-based fuel with a sufficiently powerful combustion engine that he attached to a lightweight chassis. The result was the Benz three-wheeler, and it featured such ahead-of-its-time features as exhaust valve actuation and a spark plug ignition system.
While Carl wanted to keep tinkering with his three-wheel creation, his wife Bertha believed that people needed to see what this vehicle could do and took it on a road trip (the world’s first). From this demonstration, Carl gained valuable feedback about how the three-wheeler performed on the road, which he used to make improvements, and ultimately, this is what got the automotive industry rolling.
2. The Curved Dash Oldsmobile
From 1902 to 1905, the Curved Dash Oldsmobile was the best-selling vehicle in the United States. While automobiles were still vastly outsold by buggies and carriages at that point, around 4,000 Oldsmobiles were bought in 1903, while people purchased over 900,000 carriages that same year; the Oldsmobile’s affordability led to automobiles being commonplace by 1920. The Curved Dash Oldsmobile was the first production car to feature a speedometer.
3. The 1912 Cadillac Model 30
On February 27, 1911, Charles Kettering put on a demonstration in Detroit for an electric automobile starter that turned on a Cadillac motor with the push of a button. By 1912, General Motors was putting this electric starter in their Model 30 Cadillac. It was a significant change at the time because outside of the start button of electric cars that were very limited in their driving range, people had to hand crank automobiles to start them, which was tiresome at the least and incredibly dangerous at the worst.
4. The Steel Body Dodge
While the Budd Company may not be a commercial entity today, what Edward G. Budd did in 1912 changed the automotive industry forever. After signing a contract with the Dodge brothers in 1913, the first all-steel Dodge was born, with 70,000 all-steel bodies being produced for the vehicles. It’s an innovation that marked a big step forward for the automotive industry, which was making car bodies out of wood and fabric at the time.
5. The 1915 Cadillac
Could the automotive industry have successfully made it through the past century without the advent of the V8 engine? Yes. But would car culture be the same without it? No. Henry Martyn Leland, a former loom mechanic, was instrumental in developing the 314.5-cid V8 engine in 1914 that Cadillac used in their 1915 Model 51 vehicle. The V8 engine has been a Cadillac staple and an enthusiast favorite ever since.
6. The Leyland Eight
Welshman John Godfrey Parry-Thomas set out to make the “perfect” vehicle with the Leyland Eight, a 1920 automobile that featured vacuum–assisted brakes, among other technical innovations. On August 5, 1920, Parry-Thomas submitted a patent for “Clutch and Brake Control on Road Vehicles” that detailed his use of an engine’s vacuum to create “power operation” for an automobile’s braking system.
However, the Leyland Eight that featured this vacuum servo was too expensive when it debuted, so less than 20 were ever manufactured. By the end of the 1920s, the technology caught on, and automakers used it in their production vehicles. It’s a good thing, too, because without the advent of vacuum-assisted brakes, stopping a speeding car would be extremely difficult.
7. The Wills Sainte Claire
Childe Willis was an engineer at the Ford Motor Company who designed the company’s famed Blue Oval logo. He left Ford to start his car company, Wills Sainte Claire, in 1920. Unfortunately for Willis, Sainte Claire never matched Ford’s success, and the company went belly up in 1927; however, his 1922 A-68 Roadster was ahead of its time, featuring a reversing light when the car backed up. We may take reversing lights for granted now, but could you imagine trying to back up at night without them?
8. The Cadillac la Salle
Can modern drivers even begin to imagine what it would be like to drive without being able to listen to music? Thankfully, in 1929, the Cadillac La Salle became available with a Delco-Remy car radio unit, making it the first automobile to come from dealers with an entertainment option. Thankfully for drivers everywhere, this innovation caught on and continues to evolve today with infotainment screens and Bluetooth connectivity. Many drivers cruise forever in their cars while listening to tunes.
9. The 1933 Nash Ambassador Eight
Nash Motors started in 1916 and successfully incorporated modern ventilation into its vehicles, meaning it offered heating and air conditioning. The company also made advances in developing cars with defrosting capabilities. Charles W. Nash also hired aerodynamics engineer Nils Erik Wahlberg to test his vehicles in wind tunnels. The guy was ahead of his time. While some automobiles offered heating before 1933, Nash was the first to manufacture a car with a factory-fitted heater.
10. The Oldsmobile Hydra-Matic
Shifting gears was arduous for drivers of gas-powered automobiles before General Motors released the 1940 Oldsmobile. It was the first time operating a gas-powered car did not require manual gear shifting or clutching. Following the close of World War II, the automatic transmission was the most popular gearbox in US car production. Is it possible to imagine modern cars without them?
11. The 1939 Buick Eight
It might seem like the most straightforward idea, but automobiles did not come with flashing turn signals until the 1939 Buick Eight. Fun fact: Buick called them Flash-Way direction signals. However, these flashway direction signals were different from the turn signals we see on cars all the time today in that they were only on the rear center of the vehicle. They came as a nifty light-up emblem that read “Buick” on the left and “Eight” on the right. Was this the safest or most effective design? Not exactly. Thankfully, turn signals have come a long way since then.
12. The Chrysler Crown Imperial
Before disc brakes came rolling onto the automotive scene with Chrysler’s 1949 Crown Imperial, automobiles used drum brakes. The difference? Disc brakes have more stopping power. And the 1949 Crown Imperial needed all the stopping power it could get, given that it was 20 feet long and rode on a 145-inch wheelbase. Anyone who’s ever stopped on a dime to avoid a collision knows how important this innovation is. The 1951 Crown Imperial was also the first production car to feature power steering. So, the Crown Imperial was a very innovative vehicle indeed.
13. The Saab 92
Would you want to ride in a car where the driver and passengers would absorb most of the impact during a crash instead of the vehicle itself? Before Swedish engineering company Saab manufactured their first car (the 92), production vehicles did not have safety cells. The Swedish automaker would sell over 20,000 units of the 92.
14. The International Harvester Travelette
Ford may dominate the pickup truck segment with their F-150 and F-250 models, but they were not the first to produce a crew cab pickup truck. International Harvester, a now-defunct agricultural company, did it first in 1957. The Travelette came with three doors and could seat up to six people thanks to its two rows of seating. While International Harvester may have gone out of business in 1985, the crew cab was a vital contribution to the automobile industry that paved the way for pickup trucks to become the best–selling vehicles in the United States.
15. The Chrysler 300D
The 1958 Chrysler 300D came with electronic fuel injection. While this innovation allowed vehicle starts to become instantaneous, even in cold weather, as is often the case with new technologies, there were some growing pains. While further development of this technology significantly improved engine reliability in the long run, there were initial issues with the wires and capacitor unit that GM used to control the fuel injections because they stored it under the hood where it would break down from heat damage.
16. The Volvo Amazon
Hands down, the most significant safety development in automotive history came with the release of the Volvo Amazon in 1959. The three-point seatbelt has saved countless lives since then. Nils Bohlin, who led the development of the three-point seatbelt, was one of the automotive industry’s most significant inventors, and many people reached out to personally thank him over the years after his inventions saved their lives.
17. The Mercedes S-Class
Few technical innovations have changed the way cars operate, as much as the introduction of the four-wheel multi-channel anti-lock brake system in 1978 W116 S-Class Mercedes. It’s a technical innovation that made roads safer by helping drivers avoid collisions and was an antecedent for today’s performance car technology. It’s now a mandatory feature on cars everywhere.
18. The 1971 Buick Riviera
General Motors introduced the MaxTrac in the 1971 Buick Riviera, an early traction control version. Max Trac worked by monitoring and comparing the speed of the left front and rear wheels to ensure appropriate transmission output. If the rear wheels were spinning too fast, the ignition would reduce their power. While this innovation was ahead of its time in 1971, it experienced numerous maintenance-related issues, and GM discontinued it in 1973 because of emission control regulations.
19. Vehicles With Catalytic Converters in 1975
The Clean Air Act of 1970 made it mandatory for all production vehicles from 1975 onwards to come with a catalytic converter. The goal was for all vehicles to reduce emissions by 90 percent between 1970 and 1975. The earliest catalytic converters used steel beads and mesh to reduce toxic gasses in automobiles; however, they were inefficient, leading to modern three-way converters that catalyze 98 percent of poisonous gasses from vehicles.
20. The Oldsmobile Toronado
General Motors Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car produced with passenger airbags sold to the public. However, GM had previously sold the government a fleet of 1973 Chevy Impalas with airbags. GM called it an “Air Cushion Restraint System.” They later removed it from the Oldsmobile Toronado because the public showed little interest in cars with safety features, so the vehicles did not sell well.
21. The Renault Fuego
Not many people remember this two-door hatchback from 1982, but the Renault Fuego featured an innovative bit of technology now standard on all production cars: remote locking. Engineer Paul Lipschultz invented the system with an initial range of just five feet; it paved the way for later radio-wave-based remote central locking technologies.
22. The Mazda Eunos Cosmo
The 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo was the world’s first production car to feature a built-in GPS navigation system. Mitsubishi Electric developed a navigation system called the Car Communication System (CCS.) It was so innovative at the time that Mazda decided to make CCS vehicles their trim. Is it on par with today’s in-car or smartphone navigation? Not by a long shot. But for a piece of technology that debuted around 34 years ago, it was way ahead of its time.
23. The Toyota Soarer
While a 2018 legislation in the United States mandated that all new production vehicles sport some rear-facing camera system, the first production car to feature said system was the 1990 Toyota Soarer Limited. Featuring a compact camera that fits in the vehicle’s rear spoiler housing, a digital transmitter would send the live color feed to a screen on the dash. This innovation is a significant safety win since approximately 15,000 accidents occur when vehicles are reversing in the United States alone.
24. The Mercedes-Benz CL600
In 1995, Mercedes-Benz introduced Electronic Stability Control (ESC) to a few of their luxury vehicles, though it was initially an expensive option. After a while, this collision-reducing technology found its way into the German automaker’s less expensive models. Other automakers worldwide soon followed suit and offered their version of ESC under different names, such as Dynamic Stability Control or Vehicle Stability Control. It’s been a mandatory feature on all North American vehicles since 2012.
25. The Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is the most innovative vehicle of the modern era since the automotive industry is heading towards being fully electric. Toyota launched the first Prius in 1997, and its 1.5-liter VVT-i transversely-mounted gas-powered engine combined with an electric motor could get as much as 50 miles per gallon. It was even named the new car of the year in Japan in 1997, and celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio embraced the hybrid when it arrived stateside in 2000.