Car an History

For the magazine, see Automobile Magazine.

"Car" and "Cars" redirect here. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).

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Automobile

Benz-velo.jpg

Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) – entered into an early automobile race

Classification Vehicle

Industry Various

Application Conveyance

Fuel Source Gasoline, Diesel, Electric

Powered Yes

Self-Propelled Yes

Wheels 3–4

Axles 0–2

Inventor Ferdinand Verbiest

Passenger cars in 2000

World map of passenger cars per 1000 people.

An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.[1]

The term motorcar has also been used in the context of electrified rail systems to denote a car which functions as a small locomotive but also provides space for passengers and baggage. These locomotive cars were often used on suburban routes by both interurban and intercity railroad systems.[2]

There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people).[3][4] Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over a billion cubic meters (260 billion US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.[5]

Contents

1 Etymology

2 History

3 Production

4 Fuel and propulsion technologies

5 Safety

6 Costs and benefits

7 Environmental impact

8 Other negative effects

9 Driverless cars

10 Future car technologies

11 Open source development

12 Alternatives to the automobile

13 Industry

14 Market

15 See also

16 References

17 Further reading

18...