Automobile

An automobile is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor. Different types of automobiles include cars, buses, trucks, and vans, with cars being the most popular by far. Earlier terms for automobile include "horseless carriage" and "motor car." An automobile has seats for the driver and, almost without exception, one or more passengers.

Safety

Automobiles were a significant improvement in safety on a per passenger mile basis, over the horse based travel that they replaced. Their speed and affordability, enables them to outrun tornadoes and hurricanes, delivering their occupants to safety. Millions have been able to reach medical care much more quickly when transported by automobile.

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Accidents seem as old as automobile vehicles themselves. Joseph Cugnot crashed his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1770. The first recorded automobile fatality was Bridget Driscoll on August 17, 1896 in London and the first in the United States was Henry Bliss on September 13, 1899 in New York City.

Related Topics:
Accidents - Joseph Cugnot - 1770 - Bridget Driscoll - August 17 - 1896 - London - United States - Henry Bliss - September 13 - 1899 - New York City

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Every year more than a million people are killed and about 50 million people are wounded in collisions (according to WHO estimates). Cars also cause innumerable injuries and deaths among millions of animals (see roadkill). Major factors in accidents include driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, inattentive driving, overtired driving, road hazards such as snow, potholes, and animals, and reckless driving. Special safety features have been built into cars for years, some for the safety of car's occupants only, some for the safety of others.

Related Topics:
Million - WHO - Roadkill - Alcohol

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Cars have two basic safety problems: They have human drivers who make mistakes, and the wheels lose traction near a half gravity of deceleration. Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32G emergency stop (reducing the safe intervehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most funding authorities, although these modifications would dramatically increase the number of vehicles that could safely use a high-speed highway.

Related Topics:
Automated control - G

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Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which are heavier than air, drain to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started in 1958 at Ford Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of human bodies in the passenger compartment.

Related Topics:
1958 - Ford Motor Company

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There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests. There are also tests run by organizations such as IIHS and backed by the insurance industry.

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Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the US, with similar trends in Europe. This figure increases annually in step with rising population and increasing travel, but the rate per capita and per mile travelled decreases steadily. The death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability.

Related Topics:
Europe - Per capita - 2020 - Disability

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