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An automobile (self-moving) is a wheeled, self-powered vehicle, meaning it carries its own engine. Automobiles are also called cars (from the word carriage). Most autos are designed to travel on roads built specially for them, although some, notably SUVs, are designed to be able to travel over primitive or non-existent roads.

The typical automobile has just an internal combustion engine and four wheels, although as of 2002 gas-electric hybrid engine powered cars have begun to enter the market. Three-wheeled automobiles have been built, but are not common due to stability problems.

Automobiles come in configurations such as

The first automobils were steam engine powered, then electric. Later on gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines were implemented.

While steam-powered vehicles were devised as the late 18th century, it is generally claimed that the first automobiles with an internal combustion engine were completed almost simultaneously in 1886 by two German inventors working independently, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. The large scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was developed by Henry Ford in the 1910s. Early automobiles were often referred to as 'horseless carriages', which gives some idea of their design.

The many varieties of automobile racing collectively constitute one of the most popular categories of sport in the world.

Major Possible Subsystems of a standard Automobile


Safety

Every year thousands of people are killed in traffic, often under the influence of alcohol, either by crashing into something, or by being crashed into. Special safety features have been built into cars for years:

  • ABS, Anti-lock Braking System, which prevents the car from skidding
  • Airbags, which inflate in a crash to cushion the blow of a head on the dashboard
  • crumple zones, which buffers the impact when the car hits something
  • safety belts, which keep a person from being thrown forward
  • cage construction


Future

With heavy taxes on fuel, particularly in Europe, tightening environmental laws in the United States, particularly in California, and the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, work on alternative power systems for vehicles continues. Attempts at building viable battery-powered electric vehicles continued throughout the 1990s (notably General Motors with the EV1), but cost, speed and inferior driving range made them unviable. Current research and development is centred on "hybrid" vehicles that use both electric and combustion power, and longer-term efforts are based around electric vehicles powered by fuel cells. Other alternatives being explored involve methane and hydrogen-burning vehicles, and even the stored energy of compressed air (see Air Engine).

See List of automobiles

See also two stroke cycle, four stroke cycle, diesel cycle, rotary engine (Wankel), urban car, flying car, armored car, road, traffic law.