The car as we know it today is the result of thousands of innovations over the years.
Since Autocar has been around since 1895, we’ve covered nearly all of them in detail across our history. But in nearly every case, a particular innovation that moved the automotive world on a step arrived in one particular production car for the first time.
In this latest edition of our long-running series, we’ll tell you about the first car to have a V8, to have an electronic parking brake, air conditioning, and even that tiny but oh-so-useful arrow which reminds you which side your fuel filler cap is on. For this update we’ve dug up a whole bunch of new and interesting innovations to savour and dropped a few of the less notable.
As usual, we’ve rated all of them with a groundbreaker score out of 10 – this rates the long-term impact of the technology: the higher the number, the greater the impact. It’s not a rating of the car itself, or how successful it was; indeed, some of these cars proved too ahead of their time. But they all started something, and usually something that made driving better. We salute them all. It’s quite a journey, so climb aboard:
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FIRST CAR: Benz Patent-Motorwagen (1886)
We can’t help but start here in 1886, when Karl Benz (1844-1929) gave us what is generally acknowledged as the world’s first motor car. Powered by a single-cylinder 954cc engine, it managed around 10mph. He was helped by his wife Bertha (1849-1944, pictured in a modern re-creation); when she took it on the the world’s first long car journey in 1888, she fitted leather onto the brakes and thus invented the brakepad in the process.
She also stopped to refuel at a chemist, thus making it the world’s first (unwitting) petrol station in the process.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 11 – of course
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Time to explode a myth: the Ford Model T was not the world’s first mass-produced car. It was the world’s first mass-produced car to sell in really big numbers, but it was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile that was the first car to be built using mass-producion techniques. However, just 19,000 or so examples were made between 1901 and 1907, whereas more than 16.5 million Model Ts were made between 1908 and 1927.
This Olds was also the first production car to get a speedometer.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – the reason even quite poorly-off people can afford a car today is because mass production makes them much cheaper to make and thus to buy. Speedometers are quite useful too.
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ELECTRIC STARTING: Cadillac (1912)
American engineer Clyde Coleman patented the electric starter in 1903. He then sold his patent to Delco, later purchased by General Motors, which gave its Cadillac division the distinction of being the first car maker to sell a car with an electric starter, with its 1912 Touring Edition. The feature was nothing less than revolutionary, quickly spreading across the automotive industry during the 1910s. Even Ford’s bargain-priced Model T came with a starter motor after 1919.
In 1916, Cadillac went still further with its Type 53 – it needed a key to start the engine.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – cranking your car to start it today would be seriously tiresome, and the key was extremely useful too.
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ALL-STEEL BODYSHELL: Dodge (1913)
Philadelphia businessman Edward Budd set up a company in 1912 to fabricate steel components and within a year he’d got a contract from Dodge to build 70,000 bodyshells. At the time, many cars incorporated wood in their construction and outer panels were often made of fabric, but an all-steel bodyshell was strong and rigid yet still relatively light. Before long Budd would also be making steel panels and/or bodyshells for Cadillac, Chrysler, Mercedes, Citroën and Ford, among others.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – crashing a steel car is no fun but imagine crashing in a wooden one? And steel makes cars much easier to shape and bond.
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V8 ENGINE: Cadillac (1914)
Although Rolls-Royce was theoretically the first car maker to offer a vehicle with a V8 engine, only three examples of its 3.5-litre model were built. At this stage all engines were hand-cranked to get them started and eight cylinders meant a lot of effort, so Cadillac’s introduction of the electric starter in 1912 allowed it to introduce a truly mass-produced V8 car in 1914. In just one year the company sold 13,000 examples of its 5.4-litre V8 model. Cadillac has mainly been about V8s ever since.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – truth be told, the car world could survive without V8s in it today – but we for one wouldn’t like it much.
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V12 ENGINE: Packard Twin-Six (1915)
At a time when few car makers were using powerplants with more than four cylinders it seems incredible that US car maker Packard was introducing a V12 engine. Displacing 424 cubic inches (6945cc), the Packard’s incredibly smooth and tractable powerplant was rated at just 88 horsepower which was sent to the rear wheels via a three-speed manual gearbox.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – in a world dominated today by downsized turbocharged engines, few things can beat the smooth, increasingly rare, majesty of a modern V12. Well done Packard, and rest in peace.
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John Parry-Thomas, who would go on to build the land speed record car Babs (in which he would be killed on Pendine Sands in Wales) came up with the design for a working brake servo. This vacuum-operated contraption took the effort out of braking and it was first fitted to the heavy and luxurious Leyland Eight, of which just a handful were built in the 1920s thanks to an astronomical price tag.
By the end of that decade, brake servos were beginning to be more widely adopted, having already become popular in commercial vehicles.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – without this technology, only the truly strong would be able to quickly stop a car, which would have serious implications for road safety, as well as making driving profoundly tiring.
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Childe Harold Wills (1878-1940) was an early Ford employee but his relationship with Henry Ford deteriorated and was paid a lot of money when he left the company, enough indeed to set up his own firm. He got fed up of reversing into things at night, so his new company Wills Sainte Claire decided to do something about it. To that end he incorporated a reversing light into the nearside of his A-68 Roadster of 1922, which came on when reverse gear was selected. The car was expensive and sales were small, and the firm closed in 1927.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – not very glamorous, but still extremely useful.
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ALLOY WHEELS: Bugatti Type 35 (1924)
Aluminium is lighter than steel, so the fitment of alloy wheels helps to cut overall mass as well as unsprung weight. The latter helps to improve ride quality as well as handling, which is why Bugatti came up with the world’s first alloy wheels for the tour de force that was its Type 35. Alloy wheels wouldn’t become popular as factory-fit equipment until a long time after the Type 35 arrived; by the 1960s independent wheel makers were offering magnesium alloy wheels to cut weight even further.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – quite apart from the weight thing, they usually make cars look a load better.
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CAR RADIO: Cadillac La Salle (1929)
Debate rages over which was the first car to feature a factory-fit radio. The 1929 Cadillac (and its La Salle offshoot) was available with a dealer-fitted Delco-Remy unit, but it seems British firm Crossley was the first car to feature a factory-fitted AM radio, in 1933.
Radios were a standard feature by the end of the ‘30s in America. The development of the transistor after the Second World War enabled radios to be much smaller and more reliable, and Chrysler became the first company to fit them, doing so in late 1955 for 1956 model year cars. Higher sound quality FM receivers were progressively rolled out from the 1950s onward.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – a change for the better.
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METALLIC PAINT: Chevrolet (1932)
There’s much debate about when metallic paint was introduced. By the end of the 1930s many US brands offered it. Cadillac listed it from 1933 and Hupmobile from 1934, but it seems they were both pipped to the post by Chevrolet, which allowed its cars to be finished in metallic paint from as early as 1932.
Paint mixed in with roughly 2% powdered metal, it makes cars looks better than those with solid colours, and tends to resist fading for longer. All of this tends to help your car retain its value better.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – if you have it on your car, be pleased.
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HEATER: Nash (1933)
Crude heaters were available as early as the early 1920s, although they were always aftermarket items rather than factory-fit. It wasn’t until 1933 that a relatively compact and efficient factory-fitted heater was available, when America’s Nash introduced its new range.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a major improvement to vehicle comfort.
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OVERDRIVE: Chrysler Airflow (1934)
Overdrive maintains long distance cruising at lower engine-revs, aiding fuel economy, and was introduced several years before the Second World War on the innovative and influential ill-fated Airflow.
Developed with the help of Orville Wright (yes, that one), the Airflow’s aircraft-inspired design and overdrive were among the early efforts to focus on fuel economy. Ahead of its time, the Airflow was axed in 1937, after just three years on sale, but its influence was enormous.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the start of the journey of greater fuel efficiency.
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WINDSCREEN WASHERS: Triumph (1935)
The first cars to feature windscreen washers as standard were the 1935 Triumph Gloria and Vitesse. It was a vacuum-operated system rather than electric, and only closed versions of the car got such technology – presumably those who bought an open-topped car were expected to just stick their head over the top of the screen to see the way ahead.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – very handy.
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DIESEL ENGINE: Mercedes-Benz 260D (1936)
Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) developed the engine that bears his name in the 1890s, and it was initially used in ships and submarines, and the first diesel truck appeared in 1908. Making the engine smaller and lighter proved a challenge, but car companies worked on the problem after World War One.
Mercedes launched the first proper diesel-powered production car with the 260D; it output 45bhp giving the car a respectable 59mph top speed… eventually. Mercedes would eventually help solve the key problem of diesel cars – their sloth – but it would take 40 years or so (stay tuned).
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – it’s seen as less important now that concerns over its impact on air quality are klling it off, at least as far as cars are concerned. But the food you eat today was almost certainly delivered to the store in a diesel-powered truck, and that will continue for a while yet.
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AUTOMATIC GEARBOX: Oldsmobile Series Sixty (1939)
The Oldsmobile Hydra-Matic of 1939 was enormously important. While using a manual gearbox today isn’t too much work, that wasn’t the case in the 1930s when it was something of a skillful chore. The arrival of a four-speed gearbox was a major change, and the automatic would go on to become the dominant transmission type after the Second World War in America, especially. GM’s parts arms would sell the Hydra-Matic to many other car firms, including Nash, Hudson, and England’s Rolls-Royce, while Oldsmobile’s GM siblings quickly adopted the technology too.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – A very notable groundbreaker indeed from General Motors.
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FLASHING INDICATORS: Buick (1939)
For the first few decades of the car’s life, drivers were expected to signal their intentions by sticking an arm out of the window and indicating if they were turning left or right, or slowing down. Before WW2 trafficators became more popular; these were orange-illuminated arms that popped out from the side of the car and some car makers stuck with these until the early 1960s.
But years before this, in 1939, Buick fitted flashing red lights to the back of its cars to act as indicators; within a year, Cadillac, Hudson and LaSalle had followed suit.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a big plus for road safety, especially at night.
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POWER CONVERTIBLE ROOF: Plymouth (1939)
Plymouth was the only division of Chrysler to offer open-topped cars in 1939, and while rivals were also selling convertibles, none had one on its books with a power-operated roof. The car pictured is a 1939 Plymouth Deluxe convertible, which was powered by a 201ci (3292cc) six-cylinder engine.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a wonderful added luxury.
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POWER WINDOWS: Packard Custom Super Eight One-Eighty (1940)
The Packard Super Eight One-Eighty became the first series-produced car equipped with power windows when it made its debut. Called Automatic Window Control, it was hydraulically operated. The model just beat Lincoln, whose 1941 Continental included vacuum-operated power windows.
The Packard system used brake fluid to move the windows up and down. It was slow and prone to damaging leaks when not properly maintained. A huge and very primitive air conditioning system also made its debut as an option on this truly groundbreaking car.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – important, but not the end of the tale as you’ll see…
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DISC BRAKES: Chrysler Crown Imperial (1948)
It would be another decade before most car makers would discover disc brakes but as early as 1948 the Chrysler Crown Imperial featured them, on all four wheels. Even today some economy cars still feature disc brakes only at the front. Disc brakes have a number of advantages over drum brakes; chiefly, they have more stopping power.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a vital improvement.
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SAFETY CELL: Saab 92 (1949)
For years Saab and Volvo competed with each other in building the world’s safest cars; this is where it started when Saab introduced the world’s first safety cell in its 92, which was also Saab’s first ever model.
This development was of profound importance; it established a very strong structural zone around the passenger space, protecting them from crash impacts; the rest of the car is designed to absorb those impacts, in effect by sacrificing itself, not the occupants. PICTURE: Saab Ursaab, the prototype vehicle for the 92
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – a life saver.
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ELECTRIC WINDOWS: Imperial (1951)
As already mentioned, the first power-assisted windows were fitted to a 1940 Packard, but a hydraulic set-up was used. It wouldn’t be until 1951 that electric-powered windows were fitted to a series production car; the Chrysler Imperial was the first to feature them, though it seems that certain high-end Daimlers in England may have got them in small numbers as early as 1947.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – very hard to buy a car today without them.
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POWER STEERING: Imperial (1951)
Until Chrysler’s Imperial lineup started to offer power assisted steering (PAS) on its 1951 models, drivers just had to accept that driving heavy cars in town was a pain. PAS made a profound impact; prior to that, a driver’s physical strength, or lack of it, was a key consideration when buying a car.
Imperial’s system was called Hydraguide, but it didn’t have a monopoly for long; GM quickly followed suit, and by 1956 25% of all cars on US roads had the feature; today the figure is virtually 100%.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – today, even the largest cars can be driven by anyone.
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RADIAL TYRES: Lancia Aurelia B20 (1951)
Radial tyres were first developed by Michelin in the late 1940s; they had different tread-patterns from traditional cross-ply designs, delivering better grip (especially in the wet), greater durability, and less rolling resistance, thus aiding fuel economy. Some say that the 2CV from Michelin-owned Citroën was the first car to get the new type of tyre as standard in 1948. However, Michelin itself states the first recipient was the Lancia Aurelia B20, in 1951. Other European manufacturers followed suit with their sportier models over the next couple of decades.
Perhaps because the US has rather different road topography to Europe, it took a while for American makers to follow suit; the first US car to get them as standard was the 1970 Continental III, from Ford. Radial tyres are now more or less universal.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9
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AUTOMATIC HIGH BEAM: Oldsmobile (1952)
This technology is fairly rare today, but Oldsmobile introduced headlights that dim themselves as far back as 1952. It was called Autronic Eye, and consisted of a light-detecting switch installed in a housing mounted on the driver’s side of the dash. It automatically dimmed the headlights when it sensed light from oncoming cars; the option cost around $500 in today’s money.
However many people complained the system was unreliable and too sensitive to other light sources like billboards. GM fine-tuned it and offered it on more cars, including several Cadillacs and Buicks. Today, much more sophisticated systems are reasonably common; the best of them adjust headlights to avoid blinding oncoming cars while at the same time optimising illumination as far as possible.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – useful, but even today’s systems don’t work 100% reliably.
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AIR CONDITIONING: Nash Ambassador (1954)
As mentioned, Packard offered air conditioning on its cars in 1940-42, but the system was very costly and grossly inefficient; it also took up the entire boot space. Chrysler’s AirTemp system of 1953 was better, but again was imperfect, while various GM vehicles launched in late 1953 had a large Frigidaire-based system using boot-based equipment.
Nash overcame such hurdles aided by its sister company, refrigerator manufacturer Kelvinator. Using that firm’s know-how Nash was first to offer an affordable and practical fully integrated heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system from the 1954 model year, in its Ambassador. The rest of the industry swiftly followed suit with this very important advance.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – one we can all be grateful for.
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POWER (CENTRAL) LOCKING: Packard (1956)
The introduction of power locking isn’t very well documented, but it seems that Packard was there first, introducing a power door lock system on its 1956 range. Today, it is present on virtually every car on sale.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – very useful.
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CRUISE CONTROL: Imperial (1957)
American roads have long been the perfect environment for cruise control, but until Chrysler’s Imperial brand introduced the feature on its 1957 models, you had to control the throttle yourself. Cruise control transformed long-distance driving for the better, so long as the traffic wasn’t heavy; we had to wait a few decades for a solution to that problem.
The arrival of cruise control in this Imperial highlighted what a prolific period the 1948-1960 years were for Chrysler, pioneering not just cruise but also electric windows, disc brakes, power steering, and, on the 1956 Imperial, the world’s first factory-fit transistor radio. PICTURE: Imperial LeBaron
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – a boon to the automotive world.
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AIR SUSPENSION: Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (1957)
A feature that even now is fitted to only the most luxurious of cars, Cadillac introduced air suspension on its top-of-the-line models for the 1957 model year, giving a true magic carpet ride. It also improved body control and handling. As with many pioneers, this particular journey wasn’t straightforward and the system initially proved unreliable.
GM threw everything at this flagship car; another first notched up by the car were memory power seats. It cost $13,074 – twice the price of a standard Eldorado, and the equivalent of $121,000 today – and was even pricier than equivalent Rolls-Royces. 704 were built in 1957-1958.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a step up in comfort for luxury cars.
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FIRST CREW CAB PICKUP: International Harvester Travelette (1957)
Useful for hauling stuff they may be, but some early users of pick-ups wanted to haul more people; plenty of coachbuilders added seats to Ford Model T pick-ups in the 1920s, for example. But International Harvester was the first company to offer a factory-built crewcab as we might understand it today, complete with one extra door on the passenger side and seating for six. A fourth door arrived on the model in 1961.
The Big Three took a while to embrace the concept: Dodge in 1963, Ford in 1965, and Chevy as late as 1973. Today crew cabs dominate the US pick-up market, as drivers understandably love a vehicle that can work for work during the week, and then haul families as well as leisure gear at weekends. PICTURE: 1958 model
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – helped make pick-ups the best-selling vehicle class in America.
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ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION: Chrysler 300D, 1958
Electronic fuel injection technology got off to a rough start. American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased an early system named Electrojector from Bendix with the intention of offering it as an option on the 1957 Rambler Rebel. It proved unreliable in testing and wasn’t sold to the public.
In 1958, Chrysler made a small number of 300Ds equipped with Bendix’s system, and sister brands Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge also offered the system on some of their cars. Electrojector rarely worked as intended, forcing the firm to issue a recall campaign in late summer 1958 to retrofit Electrojector-equipped cars with carburetors. Bendix’s patents were later sold to Germany’s Bosch, which perfected the technology to great success with its long-running Jetronic system; it was sold to car makers practically everywhere.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – it made engines much more reliable and refined, especially in cold weather.
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THREE-POINT SEATBELT: Volvo Amazon (1959)
Volvo is renowned for its work in making cars safer and the introduction of the three-point seat belt in 1959 has arguably saved more lives than any other safety feature. To the company’s eternal credit, it allowed the technology to be used by other carmakers at no patent cost.
Seatbelts do not just stop you flying through the windscreen in a sudden deceleration. While this is important, the vital thing is that they’re part of a wider system: they keep occupants in their allotted position in the interior of a car, inside the safety cell, even in a situation involving high impact speeds. As such seatbelts allows the safety cell to do its job of protecting you. If you are not located where the car thinks you should be in a critical situation, and instead are flying around the cabin or indeed thrown out of the car entirely, all bets are off. In the UK, 1-in-4 people who died in a car accident in 2017 were not wearing a seatbelt. Please buckle up.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – the saviour of millions.
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The Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire was the world’s first production turbocharged car. With a Garrett turbo unit added to a 3500cc V8, it boosted engine power by 16% to 215bhp, allowed this large car to perform 0-60mph in 9.2sec, a full five seconds faster than the non-turbo version, and. A turbo was also fitted to the Chevrolet Corvair’s six-cylinder engine later the same year.
However, the Jetfire’s engine proved unreliable, and ultimately only 3765 examples were sold in the two years it was on sale. The engine was nearly identical to a Buick V8, the design and tooling for which were later sold to Britain’s Rover and used in a wide range of its cars including the original Range Rover, though never in turbocharged form.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – turbos are now extremely common, allowing decent power and torque even from very small engines.
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CLIMATE CONTROL: Cadillac Sedan de Ville (1964)
After the Nash breakthrough in 1954, air conditioning rapidly became a must-have item for cars in America, and then the battle was on to improve it. GM got there first, fitting automatic ‘comfort control’ air conditioning on the 1964 Cadillac Sedan de Ville among certain other models – the driver set the desired temperature, and it did the rest, in theory at least.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – while not as huge an advance as air-con itself we still welcome this one.
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HEATED SEATS: Cadillac Fleetwood (1965)
GM’s Robert Ballard patented the heated seat in 1951, but it was 15 years before the feature made its way to a production model. In 1965, the 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood became the first car to offer heated seats; the option cost $500 in today’s money.
Today in cold climates on cold mornings we can all be grateful for this feature. Fancy a massage too? Then you had to wait until 2000, when they first appeared in a Cadillac DeVille, as well as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class at more or less the same time. In 2001, Saab offered ventilated seats on its original 9-5; it relied on a pair of flat fans integrated in the seat to extract the warm air trapped between the passenger’s body and the upholstery.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – we’re all grateful for this one every winter.
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SEQUENTIAL INDICATORS: Ford Thunderbird (1965)
In America in the 1960s, turn signals and stop lights shared the same colour: red. Engineers hypothesised that drivers faced a barrage of red lights in heavy traffic, and it wasn’t always clear what they meant – did a car braking and unbraking ahead mean they were wanting to turn, or slowing down? Ford came to the rescue with the world’s first sequentially flashing turn signal, ‘zooming’ in the direction its driver wanted.
Nowadays these are pretty common, though ironically some fitted by some European firms like Audi can’t be used in America; regulators say some of the lights don’t emit enough light.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – always fun to look at
PICTURE: 1966 model Thunderbird
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Although anti-lock brakes are now mandatory on all new cars, such technology seemed fanciful when Jensen introduced the mechanical Dunlop Maxaret system on its four-wheel-drive Interceptor derivative, the FF (pictured). It was very expensive, and the car was a commercial failure.
The first modern four-channel fully electronic anti-lock braking system (ABS) arrived in 1978 when Mercedes offered it as an option on its range-topping S-Class W116. This more efficient and quicker-reacting technology rapidly replaced mechanical ABS. ABS has been mandatory on all new cars sold in the European Union since 2004; it became obligatory in the US on cars sold after September 1 2013.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – immensely important.
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INTERMITTENT WINDSCREEN WIPERS: MERCURY (1968)
Although patents for intermittent windscreen wipers existed as far back as the 1920s, it wasn’t until the advent of solid state electronics in the 1960s that they became a production reality. The engineer and academic Robert Kearns (1927-2005) developed a system and offered it to Ford. Ford rejected it, but installed a similar design on 1969 Mercurys.
Kearns then spent much of the rest of his life in litigation with Ford and other companies, eventually winning around $30 million in compensation, a tale recounted in the 2009 Universal Studios movie Flash of Genius; it’s well worth a watch.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – quietly useful.
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HIGH LEVEL BRAKE/STOP LIGHTS: Oldsmobile Toronado (1971)
The first rear brake/stop lights in the 1920s had to be operated manually, which was nearly useless. Automatic ones followed later. Rear-end impacts in traffic are one of the most common types of road accident and at speed, the result can be serious. Rsearch suggested that a brake/stop light nearer the line-of-sight of a following driver could help reduce crashes and save lives.
Supplemental brake lights were offered as an option on the 1968 Ford Thunderbird, which situated lights at the sides of the rear window. But the fitment of strip stop lights on the trunk of the 1971 Oldsmobile Toronado (circled in image) gets the title here as they clearly signalled where this important technology was going. High-level lights became mandatory on all new cars sold in the US from September 1985 and in the European Union from 1998. PICTURE: 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado
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ELECTRONIC TRACTION CONTROL: Buick Riviera (1971)
Buick introduced a primitive version of today’s traction control systems on the 1971 Riviera. Named MaxTrac, it used a hub-mounted sensor to measure the speed of the left front wheel and a transmission-mounted sensor to monitor the speed of the rear wheels. The system relied on a device Buick called a ‘miniature transistorized computer’ to compare the two values and reduce the engine’s output when it detected the rear wheels were spinning.
The driver could turn the system on or off with a switch on the dashboard. Several other Buick models received MaxTrac for the 1972 and 1973 model years.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a vital contribution to safety.
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FAST HATCHBACK: Simca 1100Ti (1973)
We’ve included this one simply to explode a myth – that the Volkswagen Golf GTi was the first fast hatchback. If the Mini Cooper had been a hatchback, or the BMC 1300 (specifically in 1300GT form), the Brits could have claimed the first hot hatch.
But it was actually the French, in the form of the Simca 1100 Ti that pipped VW to the post. With its 82bhp twin-carb 1.3-litre engine the Simca could manage 105mph along with 0-60mph in under 12 seconds, which wasn’t as quick as the Golf GTi that came three years later.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – where would European car firms be without them?
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CATALYTIC CONVERTERS: multiple brands (1974)
In 1974, Ford, Chrysler, GM and AMC all announced that a slew of their models would be getting catalytic converters as standard for the 1975 model year, in a bid to make America’s air cleaner. The tech would slash the amount of pollution generated but it would require investment in new fuels, and specifically the ready availability of unleaded petrol. To ensure leaded petrol wasn’t used by mistake, cars equipped with a catalytic converter got a narrower filler neck, so only an unleaded nozzle would fit.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – it helped our air, and killed off lead in fuel in the process.
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AIRBAGS: General Motors range (1974)
The engineer John Hetrick (1918-1999) invented the airbag in 1952 but it wouldn’t be until the 1970s that there would be widespread usage of this ‘supplementary restraint system’. GM was the first to offer the technology in its full-size Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile models of 1974. It was known as an ‘Air Cushion Restraint System’. PICTURE: 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – in 2018, America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that frontal airbags have saved the lives of 50,547 people in the US alone.
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DIGITAL INSTRUMENTATION: Aston Martin Lagonda (1976)
LCD-based instrumentation is fast becoming the norm, although it’s far from universal. However, when fitted it still invariably mimics traditional analogue gauges. The first car to feature a digital dashboard using LED technology was the Aston Martin Lagonda of 1976, although making the electronics reliable proved such a mammoth task that production didn’t really get going for another three years.
The LEDs were dumped in favour of cathode ray tube based screens in 1986, but these proved even less reliable.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the start of a trend, however shaky.
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TURBODIESEL: Mercedes-Benz 300SD (1978)
Diesel powered cars are very efficient compared to ones powered by petrol, but they were very slow in comparison. Adding a turbo could help, and Mercedes did it for the first time in S-Class (W116) 300SD. With America shocked by soaring fuel prices, the model was only available in that market.
The engine was a 3-litre straight-five cylinder unit, and despite the turbo, power was only 111bhp, with 168lb ft of torque. A decent 28,634 examples were sold until 1980, though the engine in more powerful forms returned in the new W126 S-Class series that arrived that year; once again, it was sold in the US only, up to 1985.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – today it’s almost impossible to buy a diesel without a turbo, and you really wouldn’t want to, trust us.
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TRIP COMPUTER: Cadillac Seville (1978)
The first analogue trip computer was to be found in the Saab GT750 of 1958; the 1978 Cadillac Seville introduced us to the concept of the electronic trip computer. Today, they’re so common that we hardly even notice them.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – useful, even if we don’t use them as much as we should.
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CYLINDER DEACTIVATION: General Motors (1980)
Short-lived Boston-based firm Sturtevant built the first known cylinder deactivation system in 1905 (pictured inset, below right). It invented a set-up that let the driver shut down three of the six cylinders while cruising; the technology didn’t catch on and Sturtevant shut down in 1907.
73 years later, a spike in fuel prices inspired Cadillac to bring cylinder deactivation back on stage when it bravely made the technology standard across its entire 1981 line-up. V8-6-4 – a name which indicated it could run on eight, six or four cylinders – however didn’t work properly, thwarted by primitive electronics. Many dealers quietly told owners to switch the system off and to run as a V8 permanently, and the system was dropped after just one model year.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the technology has come back into vogue now engine management computers are so much more powerful.
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REMOTE LOCKING: Renault Fuego (1982)
We’ve got used to being able to lock and unlock our cars from afar, but the Renault Fuego was the first car to get remote central locking. The system was called Plip, in honour of its French inventor, Paul Lipschutz.
In America, the Fuego was sold by AMC dealerships, since Renault owned most of AMC at the time. It operated using a coded signal sent via a radio transmitter in the fob. AMC models got the technology shortly after.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – nearly all cars have this today, and it’s undeniably useful.
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DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER: Mercedes 300D (1985)
California has long led the way in clean air legislation. In 1985, as production of its W123 was drawing to a close, Mercedes introduced a diesel particulate filter (DPF) on its 300D. However, the system was offered only in California and it wasn’t reliable which is why Mercedes soon gave up on it. It would be another 15 years before a reliable DPF was available, this time from Peugeot which introduced a DPF with regeneration capabilities, on its 607 2.2 HDi of 2000. DPFs are mandatory today on diesel cars sold in Europe and America.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a useful contribution towards air quality.
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HEATED FRONT WINDSCREEN: Ford Granada/Scorpio, Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable (1985)
Rear-window heating has been with us since the late 1960s. Ford went to work to develop one for the windscreen. It fitted an early effort to the 1974 Ford Thunderbird and the 1974 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, powered by a separate 110V alternator. The system proved unreliable and was dropped. Ford went back to the drawing board and developed its Quickclear heated element system in the early 1980s. It was first fitted to the European Ford Granada in 1985 (pictured top), and the Taurus (pictured bottom) and Mercury Sable got it the same year in the US market.
Ford is justly proud of this technology, which can clear frost off a windscreen in under 60 seconds. Other brands’ cars now feature the technology, but Ford is still flying its flag. It’s widely fitted to its vehicles today, even those with a modest overall specification.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – put that credit card away.
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POP-UP SPOILER: Lancia Thema 8.32 (1986)
We’ve got used to active aerodynamics, with pop-up spoilers now par for the course on high-performance sports cars. But it was Lancia that was the first to build a car with such tech as standard, with its fabulously bonkers Thema 8.32 (8 cylinders, 32 valves). Powered by a V8 derived from the one seen in the Ferrari 308, the left-hand drive-only Thema 8.32 had just 212bhp – which wasn’t much more than the 185bhp of the far cheaper four-cylinder Thema 2.0 Turbo.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – becoming much more common.
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FUEL GAUGE ARROW: Ford Escort, Mercury Tracer (1989)
In 1989 Ford introduced an arrow on the fuel gauges of its Escort (pictured) and Tracer, to show which side of the car the filler flap was on. It came about after its designer Jim Moylan had to refuel a car in the pouring rain and he didn’t know which side of the car the filler was on.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – little things can make a big difference.
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AUTOMATIC ROLLOVER BAR: Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (1989)
Government regulators have long worried about the fate of convertible occupants in the event of a rollover. The prospect of a total ban on them in America even led some manufacurers like Porsche to develop the ‘halfway house’ Targa-roof option on its 911.
Mercedes addressed the issue head-on when it launched its R129 SL convertible SL. A bar strong enough to support the full weight of the car (together with the windscreen pillar) would lie hidden behind the seats. If sensors detected a roll-over was imminent the spring-loaded bar would shoot up in 0.3 seconds, and would also deploy if the roof was up or the optional winter hard-top was in place.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – very clever.
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The advantages of reflecting important information onto a driver’s line-of-sight was learned from military aviation, where they first appeared as early as the 1940s. The first car version was developed by GM Hughes Electronics and fitted to the limited edition Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible Indy 500 Pace Car, 50 of which were offered to selected customers.
HUDs became available on the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sedan (pictured) as a cost-option in 1990; it showed the car’s speed in a digital display. Still a fairly rare and pricey option today, it would be better if they were more common. One US study revealed that if a driver’s eyes wander off the road for more than two seconds the chance of an incident doubles. Two seconds might not sound long but, at 70mph, you’ll have travelled over 200 feet – about the length of 14 cars.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – one day, all cars will have this.
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SATELLITE-NAVIGATION: Mazda Eunos Cosmo (1990)
The idea of an in-built navigation system has been around since the 1950s but it wasn’t until 1990, with the arrival of the Mazda Eunos Cosmo, that the tech became a satellite-guided reality, operating via Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites operated by the US Air Force (now US Space Force).
However, the system was vague in precise location by design, as the military feared that a more accurate system would be used and abused by terrorists. However, there were workarounds available, and in any case in 2000 President Clinton signed an executive order to make GPS as accurate for civilians as it was for the military. Today the most advanced GPS can pinpoint one’s location to the nearest 30cm (12in).
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a massive change for the better.
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BACKUP/REVERSING CAMERA: Toyota Soarer (1991)
Although the 1956 Buick Centurion concept featured a rear parking camera, such tech wouldn’t appear on a production car until 1991. First to get it was the Japanese market-only Toyota Soarer; a spoiler-mounted camera fed a signal to a colour screen on the dash.
Accidents are common in low-speed parking scenarios, and when they involve small difficult -to-see children, are extremely dangerous even at low speeds. Rear-facing cameras have been mandatory on all new cars sold in the US from May 2018 and will become compulsory in Europe in 2021.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a useful addition to your own eyes.
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XENON HEADLIGHTS: BMW 7 Series (1992)
Jointly developed by Hella and Bosch, High-Intensity Discharge headlights, otherwise known as xenon lights, were first fitted to the 1992 BMW 7 Series; in BMW parlance the system was called Litronic. However, only the low-beam lights were xenon; it took until 1999 and the arrival of the C215 Mercedes CL for the arrival of bi-xenon headlights, or high-intensity discharge lighting on both dipped and main beams.
Xenon bulbs last around three times longer than halogen ones, use around 30% less energy, and illuminate more of the road ahead.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – shining a light for safety.
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Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and similarly named systems helps reduce crashes – they can rapidly detect a loss of control and brake wheels accordingly to counter oversteer (rear-wheel skidding) and understeer (front-wheel skidding). The first car to get it was the top-of-the-range MercedesCL600.
In 1997, Mercedes would also apply the technology to its new Mercedes A-Class – ESC cured it of the unfortunate dynamics the car could encounter in a high speed direction change, as shown in its famous failure of the Swedish ‘elk test’ that year. It has been mandatory on all new passenger cars sold in the USA from the 2012 model year onwards and in the European Union from November 2014.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – It’s believed that ESC and similar systems have saved tens of thousands of lives since its introduction.
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MODERN HYBRID POWERTRAIN: Toyota Prius (1997)
The idea of a hybrid is older than you think; Ferdinand Porsche dabbled in gasoline-electric cars in the early 1900s, and Mercedes-Benz experimented in the early 1980s.
Though Toyota didn’t invent the hybrid, we give it credit for raising the public’s awareness of the technology and making it increasingly common in new cars. The first-generation Prius launched in Japan in 1997 with a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine backed up by a permanent-magnet electric motor. Despite its complexity, the system has proved very reliable. PICTURE: post-2000 Toyota Prius
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – as the future of the car now appears to be electric, the Prius is where its modern-day journey begins.
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Cruise control is superbly useful, but less so in heavy traffic. Adaptive cruise control (ACC) technology uses radar and sometimes also camera technology to automatically adjust speed while keeping at a set distance from the car in front.
The 1995 Mitsubishi Diamante blazed the ACC trail, but didn’t activate the brakes. The first car to offer a full system as we know it today was the Mercedes W220 S-Class, launched in 1998.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – marvellous, and apart from usefulness, it was also arguably the first automotive step in autonomous operation.
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The C215-generation CL ushered in the world’s first actively-controlled suspension system in 1999. Aptly named Active Body Control (ABC), hydraulic cylinders embedded in the suspension offset unwanted body motions such as the car leaning into a turn or the front end diving under heavy braking. It also considerably improved the big coupe’s handling and comfort.
In 2013, Mercedes went a step further: it attached the system to powerful computer which was fed readings from a camera which scanned the road ahead. Operating up to 81mph, it could detect bumps and potholes and immediately adjust the suspension accordingly, smoothing out the ride. Dubbed Magic Body Control, it was a pricey option on high-end versions of the 2013 Mercedes S-Class W222.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a plus for handling & comfort.
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NIGHT VISION: Cadillac DeVille (2000)
In 2000 GM used technology from Raytheon to make Cadillac the first car to offer Night Vision, in posh versions of the DeVille. It used an infra-red sensor to highlight objects of safety interest onto a monochrome Heads Up Display. Take-up of the $1995 option was brisk at first – 7000 in the first year, but this dropped to just 600 in 2004, and the option was dropped in 2005; Cadillac didn’t return to the Night Vision scene until 2015, with its CT6 flagship.
In the meantime, the largest German manufacturers among others had launched increasingly sophisticated night vision systems. They were and remain pricey options – £2250 and US$2260 on the current Mercedes S-Class, for example. Opinion on them is somewhat divided, but they are certainly becoming more intelligent.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – If and when cars become fully autonomous, the ability for the car to ‘see’ will become vital.
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SATELLITE RADIO: Cadillac (2001)
Car radio can be a pain in America. Reception varies and some out of the way spots don’t have any at all. Satellite radio solved all that, ensuring stations on the same frequency where you are – and there’s no commercials either.
Cadillac started offering XM Satellite Radio on its DeVille and Seville (pictured) models for the 2002 model year. It announced plans to roll out the option to its entire 2003 line-up in 2002. Today over half of new cars sold in America feature the technology; of those, around half pay a monthly subscription.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a boon for America.
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VOICE CONTROL: Infiniti Q45 (2002)
Arriving in the Infiniti Q45, for the first time ever you could control the navigation with your voice. For a long time since, such systems were still largely hit-and-miss in operation, often the latter.
Fast forward to today, and Amazon’s Alexa seems to have cracked voice recognition as well as anyone – no wonder that she’s now available in models from Audi, Ford, Lexus, and Toyota, and heading to others soon.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 – Alexa, can you understand me now?
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Porsche started developing the dual-clutch automatic transmission for its race cars during the 1980s. It fitted the unit, which it called – and still calls – Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK), to the 956 and the 962. It took a long time before the technology appeared on a production model, though.
The first street-legal car equipped with a dual-clutch transmission was the 2003 Volkswagen Golf R32. The six-speed unit was designed for front-wheel drive or, as in the Golf, front-based all-wheel drive applications. Audi offered the gearbox as an option on the TT 3.2 Quattro, which came with the same engine as the R32, the following year. The technology allows for swifter gear changes and greater economy.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – automatics will never be the same again.
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SELF PARKING: Toyota Prius (2003)
The saviour of inept drivers everywhere, the self-parking car was a godsend when it arrived in 2003. The first car to get it was the Japanese-market Toyota Prius; it would take another three years for overseas buyers to be able to choose this tech, when Lexus made it available on the LS. Toyota called it Intelligent Parking Assist.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 – clever tech, even though it often takes longer than doing it yourself.
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BLIND SPOT WARNING SYSTEM: Volvo S80 (2006)
Safety technology got into another gear early in the last decade. Volvo was the first company to fit a blind spot monitor, into its S80. Using small rear facing cameras mounted below the wing mirrors, it detects vehicles in the car’s blind spots and displays a warning light accordingly (inset, left). The technology has now been widely adopted, usually as part of an enhanced safety options package.
In 2010, Nissan took the concept further in its Fuga (inset, right) and Infiniti M models – if those cars detect the driver is attempting to move into a vehicle’s path, the steering wheel will actively resist the manoeuvre.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a potential life-saver.
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Mercedes-Benz launched the world’s first autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system at the end of 2006. Called Pre-Safe Brake, the feature was offered as an option on the new W221 S-Class and the C216 CL-Class. AEB relied on existing technology. Near- and long-range radars scoped out the road ahead and sent a signal to the ECU if they detected an imminent collision. The car emitted audible and visual warnings and automatically applied 40% of the maximum brake performance if the driver didn’t react.
This process happened in mere milliseconds. Mercedes’ in-house research found AEB could prevent 70% of rear-end collisions. It reduced the severity of the ones it couldn’t avert by around 40%. In 2009 Mercedes upgraded the system, enabling maximum braking force in emergency situations, first fitting it to the new W212 E-Class.
AEB quickly spread across the automotive industry and it began trickling down to more affordable cars in the early 2010s. It didn’t take long for law-makers to notice its unimpeachable life-saving potential, especially during the international rise of smartphones. AEB will be mandatory in new cars sold in Europe in 2021 and 2022 in the US.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – in an age of distracted driving, even more important than ever.
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LED HEADLIGHTS: Lexus LS600h (2006)
LED headlights offer the best of all worlds: they’re compact, very efficient and they last pretty much forever. The first car to feature LED headlights was the Lexus LS600h, but this was only on dipped beam. However, within a year of the Lexus’s 2006 launch, Audi was offering LED headlighting on dipped and main beam, on its R8 V10.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – an advance into the light.
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APPLE CARPLAY: Ferrari FF (2014)
Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari long argued that his cars were all about the engine, and for a long time Ferrari interiors seemed modest. And, as a full part of the Fiat group since 1988, much Ferrari interior technology and more recently, multimedia systems, were inherited from the parent and often of a standard associated with rather lower price-points.
So it comes as a pleasant surprise to see the Ferrari FF take the title as the first production car to be fitted with Apple CarPlay. This system allows many of the functions of the driver’s iPhone to be operated from the car’s central control screen. In 2015 the Hyundai Sonata became the first car to be fitted with Android Auto, which operates in much the same way, but for Android phones. Today’s most new cars support both systems.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – brilliant.
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LASER HEADLIGHTS: Audi R8 LMX (2014)
Laser headlights offer even greater efficiency than LED items, as they use half the power and are even brighter. Audi was the first to offer such tech on its limited-run R8 LMX of 2014, which was restricted to just 99 units worldwide. Within weeks of the R8 being announced, the BMW i8 went on sale with laser headlights as an option.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – laser light.
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ELECTRONIC PARKING BRAKE: BMW 7 Series E65 (2001)
The mechanical parking brake create a packaging problem for car firms as they need to allot a large amount of space to a mechanical brake lever between the seats. Some firms tried to solve this by coming up with a different solution; Mercedes persevered with a foot operated brake for many years, though they could be tricky to use, especially hill starting on cars with a manual transmission.
BMW solved the problem once and for all when it inaugurated the world’s first electronic parking brake, operated by a simple button on the dashboard. They have since become ubiquitous, though some enthusiasts prefer the old fashioned way as levers enable the classic handbrake turn.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6
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48 VOLT ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: Bentley Bentayga (2015)
For decades, cars have featured six or 12-volt electrical systems. But with ever more complex trickery on cars – electric antiroll bars and electric turbos, for example – more power is needed to run them. The Bentley Bentayga got there first with a 48 Volt system, just ahead of its sister car, the Audi SQ7.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – some days, all cars will have this.
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DIGITAL KEY: Volvo (2016)
Volvo’s Digital Key used Bluetooth technology to allow owners to leave their key fob at home and instead use their phone to lock or unlock their car and start the engine. The Digital Key also made it possible for Volvo owners to share their car with someone by instantly sending a key, even if they’re thousands of miles away. Volvo believes its Digital Key will ultimately make the car key obsolete but will provide regular fobs for as long as customers ask for one.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – very clever.
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10-SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION: Ford F-150 (2016)
The term “10-speed” isn’t just for road bikes anymore. GM and Ford formed an unlikely alliance to design the first 10-speed automatic transmission and began producing it in 2017. Ford first brought it to the market in the 2017 F-150; GM chose to first use it in the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
As of 2021 it’s also found in a number of other cars including the Fords Mustang, Expedition, Everest, and Ranger models, and the Lincoln Navigator as well. On the GM side you can now find it in the Cadillacs Escalade and CT6, and Chevrolets Suburban RST, Tahoe, Camaro SS, and Silverado, and the GMC Yukon Denali. Meanwhile, Honda introduced its own 10-speed automatic transmission on the 2018 Odyssey.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – very handy for economy.
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VARIABLE-COMPRESSION RATIO IGNITION: Infiniti QX50 (2017)
Infiniti introduced the second-generation QX50 on the eve of the 2017 Los Angeles auto show. Though it looks like yet another SUV from the outside, its sheet metal hides a trick piece of tech. It’s the first car available with a variable-compression ratio engine.
Variable compression technology and downsizing help the 268hp VC-Turbo engine return markedly better fuel economy than its V6-powered predecessor without completely neutering its performance genes or adding the weight and complexity of a hybrid powertrain. America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reckons the new SUV is 35% more economical than the 2018 V6 QX50.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say
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FINGERPRINT SECURITY: Hyundai Santa Fe (2019)
Hyundai ripped a page from the Apple playbook when it developed a technology best described as Touch ID for cars. Thanks to fingerprint-sensing technology, drivers can unlock the car by touching a small sensor integrated into the door handle and they can start the engine by placing their finger over the ignition switch. Capacitance recognition ensures thieves won’t be able to access a vehicle with a paper copy of the owner’s fingerprint; they’d need the entire finger to break in, which would be inconvenient but not impossible.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say
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FIRST 200BHP/LITRE CAR: Mercedes-Benz A45 S AMG (2019)
There was a time when cranking 100 horses out of a single litre of engine capacity was impressive, but it’s taken a while to crack the 200bhp barrier. McLaren got close in 2018 with the 197bhp-per-litre offered on its Senna track-focused supercar, but it wasn’t until 2019 that we finally got there with the A45 S AMG 4Matic+ from Mercedes. This car flew through the 200 mark, belting out 416bhp from its turbocharged 1991cc M139 engine – delivering 208bhp-per-litre.
It means this small hatchback is capable of 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds, quicker than a Ferrari F40. The M139 is also the most powerful four-cylinder engine in series production, for good measure.
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say, though as the car world goes electric, we fear the 300bhp-per-litre record may never be broken.
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CURVED OLED: Cadillac Escalade (2020)
Cadillac introduced the world’s first curved OLED screen to be placed in a car in the 2021 Cadillac Escalade, unveiled in early 2020. The screen has twice the pixel density of a 4K TV, and is bright enough to not require a hood over the screen (to give shade).
GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say, though doubtless they will become very common in the future.
Feature by Richard Dredge, with some additional content from Tom Evans
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