Automobiles are road vehicles that are powered by a motor and able to carry passengers. They are considered a staple of modern life because most people now depend on them for transportation. Automobiles are also a symbol of power and wealth because they can get people from one place to another quickly.
Whether they are a classic Model T Ford or an artful mid-century modern, the automobile has become an essential part of American culture. The auto industry is the largest manufacturer of consumer goods and a major source of jobs. It is the main customer of petroleum and steel industries and drives technological advances in ancillary industries.
The first automobiles were invented in the early 1800s by Karl Benz and others. They used internal combustion engines and had a limited number of passengers. They were expensive and usually made for wealthy individuals. However, Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry when he started producing his Model T in 1910. His innovation was that he created an assembly line, where workers performed a single task and moved car parts on conveyer belts. This allowed him to make many cars quickly and cheaply so that more people could afford them.
The era of the annually redesigned, high-performance road cruiser ended with the emergence of government safety standards and concerns about air pollution, oil consumption, and depletion of world supplies. It was replaced by fuel-efficient, functionally designed small cars from Germany and Japan.