Cruise control on cars was invented in 1948 by the blind inventor and mechanical engineer Ralph Teetor. He came up with the idea due to being frustrated by his driver’s habit of speeding up and slowing down as he talked.
cars
A guy drove 3.25 million miles with…
A guy drove 3.25 million miles with his Volvo that he bought in 1966 until his death in 2018.
The first Ford Mustang…
The first Ford Mustang (Serial #000001) got delivered and sold before anyone noticed, and they had to trade the 1,000,001st to the owner to get it back.
Ford tracked him down and asked to have Serial Number One back. Not surprisingly, Tucker declined the request. He spent the next two years putting some 10,000 miles on his pony car. By early 1966, when nearly one million Mustangs had been sold and the car’s status as a Ford landmark was secure, the Blue Oval called again. This time, Ford offered Tucker a worthy trade: in exchange for returning Serial Number One, he could have the One Millionth Mustang, equipped to his specifications. Tucker agreed and, when filling out the order, covered the entire option sheet with single large “X.”
Han Min-hong, a South Korean professor…
Han Min-hong, a South Korean professor, built and successfully tested a self-driving car in 1993. The car traveled 185 miles from Seol to Busan through one of South Korea’s most heavily-traveled expressways. Despite the amazing results, the government scrapped funding for his research. Here’s some of the footage from the 90s. As it’s shown in the video, there is a video camera with infra-red sensors sensing cars at the front and automatically reducing speed and stuff.
Some people, particularly in the USA…
Some people, particularly in the USA, modify their cars to produce a thick black diesel smoke in order to annoy or protest against cyclists and environmentalists. This modification is known as “Rolling Coal”.
In the 1960s some models of Plymouth and Chrysler…
In the 1960s some models of Plymouth and Chrysler came with dashboard record players which played seven-inch 45s. The player was called the “Highway Hi-Fi” and it was an absolute failure.
There were flying cars in 1947…
There were flying cars in 1947. Convair built the Model 118, or ConvAirCar, and flew it several times. It was a normal car that had a detachable wing and propellor assembly that allowed it to fly.
Reverse Racing was a huge and…
Reverse Racing was a huge and very challenging motor sport in the Netherlands thanks to the sale of DAF cars that had no speed limit for driving in reverse. It was eventually stopped because those cars were becoming collectors items and the sport was considered too dangerous.
In the 1930s, metallic paints were…
In the 1930s, metallic paints were invented for cars. They were made with fish scales and it would take 40,000 herring to make a single kilo of paint.
The first car ever to break…
The first car ever to break 100 kmh (62mph) barrier was an electric car. The 1899 speed record of La Jamais Contente held for three years, until the reign of combustion engines started.