These included changes for industry and technology and everyday life. Automobile manufacturing became one the first industries to use the assembly line. The automobile gave people more personal freedom and access to jobs and services. It led to development of better roads and transportation. Industries and new jobs developed to supply the demand for automobile parts and fuel. These included petroleum and gasoline, rubber, and then plastics. Services like gas stations and convenience stores sprang up.
The automobile gave people access to jobs, places to live, and services. It also contributed to the rise of leisure activities. And with leisure came new services. These included motels, hotels, amusement parks and other recreation, restaurants and fast food. The automobile also brought new laws and government requirements. These included safety features like seatbelts, highway rules, and drivers' licenses. The automobile also brought harm to the environment. Exhaust from gas-burning cars brought pollution.
And undeveloped land was used to build highways and related industries. History credits Karl Benz, a German engineer, with inventing the automobile around Benz was a German engineer. Other inventors and engineers followed with their own designs. From the s to about , automobiles were mostly for the wealthy. They were made by hand.
And they were often customized for the buyer. Henry Ford was a businessman and engineer. He came after Karl Benz, and he revolutionized the way cars were made. And this had a big impact on society. Ford realized that if he could use the assembly line to produce one model of car with basic features, he could turn cars out faster and with less cost. And that would mean that more people would be able to afford an automobile.
What is an assembly line? An assembly line is a way of manufacturing a product where different parts and materials are added in a sequence. And different people and machines complete different parts of the process. The product moves along the assembly line and begins to take shape as it goes. This is very different from one or two people completing the product together from start to finish.
Ford applied his idea to build an inexpensive and affordable car. He called it the Model T. People were interested in owning them, but the elaborate machines were too expensive for the middle class.
Ford had been working with Thomas Edison to create a better battery for electric vehicles, but the success of the affordable Model T halted the progress. Another factor was the invention of the electric starter in It eliminated the need to hand-crank gas-powered vehicles. Once oil was discovered in Texas and gasoline became cheap gas-powered vehicle sales began to surge. Today the opposite is true. The high cost of gasoline and pollution concerns have helped electric vehicles make a comeback.
Along with mass production came new features, some of the first being speedometers, seatbelts, windshields and rearview mirrors. Then cars started to get fancy, with power steering , cruise control , three-point seatbelts and heated seats Over 20 years later in , the federal government required all passenger vehicles to come standard with dual frontal airbags.
This is about the time when technology became a big selling point. This brings us to modern-day cars with Bluetooth, hard drives, advanced safety systems, GPS, WiFi and even the ability to parallel park themselves. And driverless cars that once seemed like something out of a science fiction film are close to being a reality. But its edges are still way more rounded than the truly boxy cars of the '80s — and even the groundbreaking, futuristic Ford Taurus.
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