The Automobile Revolution

This book discusses cars of the future and the new socio-economic paradigm that they represent. It examines the electromobility revolution in the traditional automotive industry and brings together multidisciplinary expertise to provide insights into the shift towards electromobility. New vehicular technologies may develop in various directions, including the smart car, and this context raises two important questions: will car manufactures maintain control over the industry? And if so, will they be able to come up with sufficiently radical innovations to steer us into the electromobility of tomorrow? One thing is certain: the transition to electromobility will be a revolution. The book’s combined approach to understanding this complex reality enables readers to better visualize the possible future directions. It offers anyone interested in electromobility an excellent review of the subject and a useful roadmap to future developments.

The rapid takeoff of the continent-sized national economies and the increasing expense of extraction have led to strong tensions in petrol prices and a race towards alternative driving systems. This book analyses the emergence of a second automobile revolution through the trajectories of automobile firms since the nineties.

We stand at the cusp of a mobility revolution unlike anything we have seen since the days of Gottlieb Daimler and Henry Ford, 130 years ago.

Between 1895 and the late 1920's American civilization was transformed by the automobile and the automobile industry. In American Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,James J. Flink writes about the formation of an American automobile culture during the period from the introduction of the motor vehicle into the United States in 1895 to the opening of the Ford Motor Company's Highland Park plant on January 1, 1910. He concludes that Americans by 1910 were committed to automobility and that, with the development of a mass market for motorcars, the automobile industry in America had reached a critical turning point. From then on, the automobile and the automobile industry "called the tune and set the tempo of modern American life." In contrast to earlier historians of the automobile, Professor Flink avoids narrow concentration on the automobile industry and its product. He focuses instead on the automobile as a factor influencing and influenced by American civilization. The molding of a favorable public opinion of the automobile by the press, the growth of automobile clubs, the evolution of legislation intended to regulate the motor vehicle, the development of roads and services for the motorist, and regional, class, and occupational differences in automotive innovativeness—these are some of the topics that are dealt with adequately for the first time in this authoritative volume. Forty-six full-page illustrations augment the text. Familiar topics are also viewed from a fresh perspective. Having made an exhaustive study of the automobile trade journals and popular periodicals of the period, Professor Flink was able to relate the developments in automotive technology and in the automobile industry to the sociocultural milieu within which these developments took place. He reaches some novel conclusions. He demonstrates, for example, that from the first the organization of the automobile industry and the industry's technological accomplishments lagged behind the public's expectations that a reliable, cheap car for the masses would soon appear and inaugurate a utopian horseless age. Well before Henry Ford came out with his legendary Model T, popular opinion of the automobile was overwhelmingly favorable, and many people thought that automobility was a panacea for society's ills. America Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910,is the first comprehensive, scholarly account of the origins of the American automobile revolution. It adds a new dimension to our understanding of twentieth century American civilization.

Gives us an insider's account of how Big Data is poised to transform the auto business and will do the same in other sectors. This is the story of a maverick at the cusp of a pround change that will shake up the business of cars, appliances, homes, and most other things we buy today.

There have been few cars that ignited the public's interest as much as the Ford Mustang. Introduced at the opening of the New York World's Fair in April 1964, the Mustang was based on mechanicals from the earlier Ford Falcon compact car; it quickly established a new motorcar category which was widely copied by domestic and overseas competitors--the "pony car." From the outset, the Mustang represented inspired product planning and design, followed by brilliantly executed marketing. Ford's Mustang team effort used every tool in the vehicle-marketing toolbox: clever teases long before the new product went on sale, unprecedented publicity, simple but effective advertising, the stage at the World's Fair, movie placement, distribution of toy plastic models, and even a replica pedal car for the young drivers of the future. With a measure of luck, it became a classic case of releasing the right product at the right time, and Ford sold one million units in less than two years. Even today, the Mustang is held high as a symbol of American design, engineering, and the freewheeling American spirit.

The Automobile traces the evolution of one of the most influential inventions of our time. This volume explains the scientific processes that propelled each stage in the development of the "horseless carriage" and what changes those early versions of the car brought to our culture. As readers follow Henry Ford's great promise to bring affordable cars to everyone, they will learn how the revolutionary techniques of mass production changed modern society and led to the proliferation of the automobile, the automotive industry, and the vast system of roads and highways on which we depend. The Automobile also examines the ways transportation has affected safety and manufacturing laws and brings the reader into the present by discussing the energy crisis and what innovations are being made to automobiles today. Book jacket.

Front Cover -- About Island Press -- Subscribe -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Will the Transportation Revolutions Improve Our Lives-- or Make Them Worse? -- 2. Electric Vehicles: Approaching the Tipping Point -- 3. Shared Mobility: The Potential of Ridehailing and Pooling -- 4. Vehicle Automation: Our Best Shot at a Transportation Do-Over? -- 5. Upgrading Transit for the Twenty-First Century -- 6. Bridging the Gap between Mobility Haves and Have-Nots -- 7. Remaking the Auto Industry -- 8. The Dark Horse: Will China Win the Electric, Automated, Shared Mobility Race? -- Epilogue -- Notes -- About the Contributors -- Index -- IP Board of Directors