In this blog post, we will look at the possibilities and limitations of solar cars and why we are not yet driving them in our daily lives.
The word ‘car’ comes from the Latin words “carrus” and ‘carrum,’ which mean ‘to carry.’ In English, a car is called an ‘automobile.’ Automobile is a combination of ‘autonomy’ and ‘mobility.’ In other words, a car is a means of transportation that can move freely on its own. People have long wanted to get to their destinations quickly and easily and to transport heavy loads comfortably. For this reason, various means of transportation such as horses, palanquins, and carts were used in the past. This interest in human transportation led to the invention of the car.
Cars began to be produced on a small scale by small and medium-sized companies in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, steam cars, electric cars, and gasoline cars were competing with each other. However, the car market changed when Ford began mass production of cars. Now, with the focus on eco-friendly energy, electric cars and solar cars are gaining attention again. This article will explain the history of cars, current cars, and cars of the future.
About 6,000 years ago, humans invented the wheel from a hollowed-out log. The invention of the wheel revolutionised the way humans travelled. Various means of transportation powered by animals or humans were invented, but humans have always dreamed of a vehicle that could run on its own power. The first automobile was a spring-powered car built by Leonardo da Vinci in 1482.
Then, in 1569, Dutchman S. Stepin built the first wind-powered car, which reached a maximum speed of 34 km/h. In the mid-17th century, after James Watt’s steam engine became practical, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot of France invented a three-wheeled steam tractor.
However, Cugnot’s invention was a three-wheeled vehicle with a maximum speed of only 5 km/h, which required water to be added every 15 minutes and had no brakes. Due to these characteristics, the vehicle could not be parked on hills and often crashed into walls, causing fires. However, Cugnot’s attempts were halted by the French Revolution.
In 1801, Richard Trevithick of England invented the first steam-powered automobile that could carry passengers, with eight seats and four wheels. However, during the reign of Queen Victoria, automobile development and production were subject to strict regulations due to damage to roads, excessive noise, and high smoke emissions. Steam-powered vehicles could not travel faster than 6 km/h in rural areas and 3 km/h in cities. In the late 19th century, companies began to develop steam-powered vehicles. A representative example is the Stanley Company in the United States, founded by twin brothers Francis Edgar Stanley and Freland Oscar Stanley.
Steam-powered cars were manufactured not only in the United States but also in Europe, but they were unproductive due to their large and heavy boilers and high maintenance costs, making them unsuitable for personal use. For this reason, steam-powered cars gradually disappeared. Electric cars were also invented in the mid-19th century, but they did not develop significantly because they could only travel short distances due to long charging times.
The cars we commonly see today originated from the application of internal combustion engines. The first internal combustion engine car was developed in 1820 by William Cecil in England, who developed an engine by exploding a mixture of hydrogen and air. In 1876, N. Otto of Germany created a four-stroke cycle engine using the principle of the cycle engine discovered by A.B. Rosa in 1862. G. Daimler, who worked at the Otto Internal Combustion Engine Research Institute, invented an engine that used gasoline and obtained a patent for the first two-wheeled vehicle. At the same time, K. Benz also invented a gasoline-powered locomotive and obtained a patent for a three-wheeled vehicle. Not only did these two inventors create the first gasoline-powered automobiles, they also commercialised automobiles.
In 1926, the two companies merged to form Daimler-Benz, and the name of the car became Mercedes-Benz. The design of the first Mercedes car invented by Daimler is the basic form of today’s cars. The first Mercedes car was equipped with a honeycomb-shaped radiator, round headlights, and semi-elliptical springs.
The automobile industry began at the end of the 19th century, but full-scale mass production did not begin until the introduction of the Ford Model T in the United States in 1908. With Ford’s mass production, automobiles gradually became less of a luxury item and more of a commodity. By 1913, Ford was already producing more than 100,000 cars. Environmental factors played a major role in enabling the United States to surpass Europe, which had been ahead in automobile technology and business. Due to the vast size of the United States, there was a strong demand for transportation, which could not be met by horse-drawn carriages. In addition, wages were higher than in Europe, so the need for transportation was much greater than in Europe, where wages were relatively low. For these reasons, the United States was able to get ahead of Europe much faster in terms of commercial production.
The cars we know today can be divided into two main structures. Cars are similar to humans. The first is the body, which is like the skin of a human being, consisting of the exterior and interior space. The second is the chassis, which is a combination of various devices necessary for driving, such as the organs that enable humans to move. The body is mostly designed to minimise air resistance. The chassis refers to everything except the car body. The chassis includes the engine, power transmission system, steering system, braking system, and suspension system. The engine generates the power necessary for the car to run. The engine accessories include the fuel system, ignition system, lubrication system, cooling system, intake/exhaust system, and starting system. The power transmission system transfers power from the engine to the wheels. The power transmission system consists of a clutch, transmission, final drive and differential gear, wheels and tyres. The steering system helps the driver to steer the vehicle. It consists of a steering mechanism, gear mechanism and link mechanism.
The braking system is a device for slowing down or stopping the car. Finally, the suspension system absorbs shocks received through the wheels while driving to minimise damage to the car and improve ride comfort. However, just as steam-powered cars were very different from internal combustion engine cars, many changes are expected in the cars of the future. Fossil fuels are finite resources.
Therefore, there is growing interest in alternative and renewable energy sources. Alternative energy sources include environmentally friendly energy sources such as solar energy, ethanol, hydrogen, fuel cells, and biodiesel. Although there are no cars that run entirely on renewable energy yet, attempts and research to create such cars are continuing. For example, in the case of electric cars, there are still issues to be resolved regarding batteries. In order to increase the driving range, the amount of batteries must also be increased. However, as the number of batteries increases, so does the weight of the car, which limits the driving range. Solar-powered cars use electric cells to charge during the day and run on solar energy. However, due to a lack of space for large-scale development and the low efficiency of solar cells, solar-powered cars are still in the research stage. Nevertheless, efforts to utilise renewable energy are currently evident in hybrid cars.
For example, the Avante, Forte, Sonata, and K5 are all hybrid cars. A hybrid car is a car that uses two or more types of energy, such as electricity and petrol. There are various types of hybrid cars. For example, there are electric cars with fuel cells, electric cars with petrol engines, electric cars with gas turbine engines, and electric cars with diesel engines.
In the future, the convergence of IT and automobiles is expected to become even more prominent. Smart cars and autonomous cars are currently in the spotlight. Smart cars are cars that can be operated using computers, communications, and measurement technologies. By connecting cars to smart devices, a new car environment will be created for drivers and passengers. Autonomous cars are, as the name suggests, cars that drive themselves on roads. Google is a leader in the development of autonomous cars. Google is developing advanced sensors that can recognise the surrounding environment and is making great efforts to link them with smart devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs. In fact, BMW has equipped its electric car, the i3, with four laser scanners to prevent collisions with surrounding obstacles. Currently, many countries are enacting and revising laws to accelerate the era of autonomous vehicles and become leaders in this field. For example, the state of Nevada in the United States became the first to allow autonomous vehicles in 2011.
Cars are a very important means of transportation for humanity and remain one of the most indispensable modes of transportation today. As explained above, cars have undergone various developments, from steam-powered cars to the autonomous cars of the future. In the future, electric cars, solar-powered cars, and autonomous cars, which are not yet in use, will become commonplace. Technological developments in cars will continue, and we will be able to enjoy even more convenient and efficient cars.
