Even today’s most economical cars have cruise control, which keeps your car moving at desired speed, even if you aren’t pressing the gas pedal. However, there was a time when such a device wasn’t available. In fact, the Chrysler engineers created a small revolution when they included it as an option for their 1958 Imperial model. Soon, all the other luxury brands followed.
Drivers first used seatbelts in the late ‘40s only as lap belts. However, they weren’t obligatory by law, so most car companies decided not to install them. This is totally unimaginable today, but those were the times. Soon, SAAB made lap belts part of their standard equipment and Volvo invented three-point, shoulder belts in 1959. Now they are the norm throughout the industry.
The idea of cooling or heating your car’s interior seemed like a fantasy back when cars barely had windows. But for a long time, car manufacturers have tried to accomplish that. Ventilation or heating wasn’t that big of a problem, but cooling was. Finally, in 1940, Packard managed to produce the first air conditioning system for their top of the line cars. Later, Cadillac introduced automatic climate control and the revolution started.
There was a time when listening to a radio in the car was considered extremely dangerous because the driver’s attention was on the broadcast, not on the road ahead. Today, drivers have infotainment systems with TV-sized screens, but nobody calls that dangerous anymore. The first attempt to put a radio in cars was in the early ‘20s, but it was too expensive and complicated.
However, when the Motorola Company presented its compact radio in the early ‘30s, installing radios became much easier. In fact, Chevrolet was the first company to offer it as a regular production option.
One of the features people take for granted today is power windows. Practically all new cars sold globally have them. But not so long ago, you had to crank to open the windows. Packard installed the first power windows as an option for their 1940 models. The system was heavy and expensive, but their customers loved it. And soon, other car companies used them, as well.
Steel was the material for cars, and for decades nobody dared to do anything different until Chevrolet presented the 1953 Corvette. The most interesting thing about the new Corvette was the fiberglass body. Back in the early ‘50s, plastic was still the material of the future, so they rarely used it in the car industry. The Corvette was the first production car with a full plastic body, making Chevrolet one of the pioneers of fiberglass construction.
Today, almost all cars have touch screens, so most people consider this technology to be standard. However, think back to 1986 with those monochromatic touch screens car customers thought was a technological marvel. That is exactly what Buick wanted when they introduced a special touch screen as an option on the 1986 Riviera. There’s no doubt that design and technology have come a long way since.
It is hard to believe, but the Bosch Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of car electronics systems in the world, thinks the introduction of the antilock braking system (ABS) and its widespread use has saved over million lives since 1976. The invention of Antilock brakes came in the ‘60s. But Mercedes was the first to use them in the ‘70s. However, since then, they have become an important standard in car safety.
Today, many cars have four-wheel steering. It’s a complicated system that steers the front as well as the rear wheels. And that gives cars a better turning circle and more precise steering. Most automotive engineers thought about all-wheel-steering for a long time. But, just a few companies dared to put it in regular production. Nissan was the first in 1982, soon followed by Honda and its Prelude 4WS.
Today, almost all cars have unibody construction or monocoque, as they sometimes call it in Europe. But for a long time, most cars had a sturdy, heavy, ladder-type chassis. But that type of chassis affected handling, making cars taller and chunkier than they needed to be. The first unibody car was the 1922 Lancia Lambda, which revolutionized the construction of passenger cars.
The invention of disc brakes happened early in car history. However, drivers had to wait almost 50 years for Citroen to present the DS. The DS was the first mass-produced car to feature this type of braking, among other notable features. Today, disc brakes are the norm and almost nobody remembers the drum brakes of yesterday.
The car safety glass that shatters into small pieces to avoid cutting passengers is the standard for decades. But once upon a time, cars had real glass, which was dangerous in the case of a crash. The ill-fated Tucker Car Company invented safety glass to use on their Torpedo model. The car never got a chance to compete with the Big Three. But, safety glass lives on, and not just in cars, but in many other items.
After the radio revolution, car manufacturers started installing newer, better sound systems. Also, they added updated stereo speakers as well as eight-track and cassette players. But the first factory-installed CD player was in the 1986 Lincoln Town Car. After that, almost all luxury manufactures offered CD players as part of their standard equipment.