Quote from: Rev.Cambeul on Fri 04 Feb 2022Shelby Cobra at 11:35 Minutes
What is amazing is that despite the 1st automobile, which was steam powered, being invented by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot in 1769 in France and the 1st gasoline powered automobile being invented by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in 1885 in Germany, America introduced almost all of the succeeding innovations in automotive technology, which would make the automobile practical and a mass market phenomenon, below is a timeline of these innovations:
1908 - Henry Ford invents the moving assembly line consisting of conveyor belts, rollers, and overhead gantry cranes along with vertical integration in order to mass produce automobiles. He also introduces all of the mass produced variations of the automobile such as mass produced sedans, roadsters, vans, pickup trucks, trucks, fuel tanker trucks and buses. Ford also introduces mass produced agricultural equipment such as tractors and combine harvesters which he calls Fordsons. Ford also introduces the first sports car, the Ford Model T Roadster which has a record breaking top speed of 97km/h during this time.
1914 - Thomas Edison invents the first mass market electric car that uses his patented alkaline, nickel-iron and nickel-iron alkaline batteries to reach a top speed of 40km/h and have a range of 145km. Though not as successful as the gasoline or diesel powered alternatives because the batteries only last for a few months due to leakages and the batteries take 8 hours to fully recharge, Edison manages to sell 35,000 units. Edison also invents the charging station for electric cars and even has one in his house, which is made of poured Edison concrete that he also invented.

Source:
https://www.wired.com/2010/06/henry-ford-thomas-edison-ev/
https://vintageelectriccars.com/car-1919-1931-detroit.aspx
https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2022/the-detroit-electric-and-its-place-in-automotive-history
1920s - Nikola Tesla invents the spark plug and starter motor for internal combustion engines, eliminating the need for crank starters and flint igniters for the gasoline engines: which can wear out more easily than spark plugs because of friction.
1920s - Howard Hughes invents the streamlined automobile body in an experiment to increase the speed of automobiles carrying the chase cameras he uses in his movies. He removed the boxy, conventional trunks of the cars and replaced them with trunks that had a streamlined boat-tail shape. This increased the top speed of his vehicles from 100km/h to 160km/h, setting an automobile speed record not broken until the introduction of the Ford Model B Roadster.
1932 - Ford sets a new automobile speed record with his Ford Model B Roadster which has a top speed of 193km/h. He invents the v-engine and incorporates other innovations in his new car as mentioned in this previous post: https://creativityalliance.com/forum/general-jabber/i-like-my-new-avatar!/msg38087/#msg38087
1933 - Buckminster Fuller invents the Dymaxion Car, the 1st car to be made of aluminum and the 1st unibody tricycle. It has a top speed of 145km/h. Though unibody tricycles do not become popular in the West, the become a hit in Asia where they are called auto rickshaws.
1935 - Ralph Peo invents the automobile air conditioner.
1939 - Thomas Poulter invents the 1st diesel powered 4WD off-road vehicle which he calls the Antarctic Snow Cruiser.
1940 - Earl A. Thompson, while working for General Motors, invents the Hydra-Matic, the 1st car with hydraulic control systems as mentioned in this previous post:
https://creativityalliance.com/forum/general-jabber/i-like-my-new-avatar!/msg38087/#msg38087
1950s - General Motors invents aluminum alloy engine blocks as mentioned in this previous post:
https://creativityalliance.com/forum/general-jabber/i-like-my-new-avatar!/msg35922/#msg35922
1950s - General Motors invents fuel injection as mentioned in this previous post:
https://creativityalliance.com/forum/general-jabber/i-like-my-new-avatar!/msg38087/#msg38087
1956 - George Devol invents the industrial server computer and the industrial robot, called the Unimate, which makes cars even cheaper to mass produce.
1964 - Carrol Shelby and Ken Miles set a new speed record for cars with the Ford GT40 which as an aforementioned top speed of 351km/h. The 2 men create many new innovations for automotive technology as mentioned in the 1st post of this thread: https://creativityalliance.com/forum/general-jabber/i-like-my-new-avatar!/msg35922/#msg35922
1964 - Robert Kearns invents the automatic windshield wiper.
1977 - Roger L. Easton invents GPS which is eventually incorporated into cars.
1977 - Gene Ledger invents the concept of minimalist design which he incorporates into the world's 1st passively cooled house that uses a white painted roof, walls and doors along with a shiny 1-way tint to reflect sunlight off the house and insulation in the walls to further prevent the absorption of heat and decrease the heating load which reduces the electrical consumption of the house's air-conditioners. The passively cooled house, which has no decorations and has the simplest design possible, was designed this way to keep the cost of construction to a minimum by saving on energy, materials and labor. Cars and other commercial products also start having a minimalist design from this time onward to reduce their production costs, making them cheaper.
1990 - General Motors invents the 1st electric sports car, the Impact, which has a top speed of 295km/h and a range of 201km.
1996 - General Motors introduces the EV1 electric sedan which sets a new speed record for electric sedans with a top speed of 129km/h and also sets a new record for electric car endurance with a range of 169km and an energy economy of 4km/kWh with an equivalent fuel economy of 36km/l.
General Motors also introduces the 1st diesel hybrid sedan which sets a new speed record, with a top speed of 129km/h and also sets a new record for hybrid car endurance with a range of 890km and a fuel economy of 34km/l.
General Motors also introduces the 1st CNG hybrid sedan which sets a new speed record, with a top speed of 129km/h and also sets a new record for hybrid car endurance with a range of 640km and a fuel economy of 26km/l.
General Motors also introduces the 1st gas turbine hybrid sedan which sets a new speed record, with a top speed of 129km/h and also sets a new record for hybrid car endurance with a range of 630km and a fuel economy of 43km/l.
General Motors also introduces the 1st fuel cell hybrid sedan which sets a new speed record, with a top speed of 129km/h and also sets a new record for hybrid car endurance with a range of 480km and a fuel economy of 34km/l.
The Impact, EV1, the hybrid cars, and all of the innovations introduced in these vehicles were invented by Alan Cocconi.
The hybrid cars invented by General Motors and the EV1 were also the 1st vehicles to have electric control systems such as electric automatic transmission, electric power steering, and electric regenerative braking as seen in this image below which shows that these cars use a joystick to shift gears and have no handbrake:

The EV1 and General Motors hybrids also have the following features which were also invented by Alan Cocconi for General Motors:
Heat-Pump Automotive Climate System
Dual-Reduction Gearset
Aluminum Shock Absorbers
Electrically Heated Windshield
Solar Glass
Hidden Antenna
Keyless Entry
Composite Body
Aluminum Space Frame
Aluminum Wheels
Cast Magnesium Seat Frame
Cast Magnesium Steering Wheel Insert
Low Rolling Resistance Toothed Tires
Daytime Running Lamp

2002 - General Motors invents the flat chassis for cars which is much lighter than the conventional i-beam chassis, more than doubling the average fuel economy of cars from 13km/l to 27km/l.
2003 - Elon Musk invents the leak proof lithium ion battery and DC fast charger for his electric cars. The leak proof lithium ion battery can last for 8 years because it is in a sealed, airtight case, which prevents leakages, and the DC fast charger works by delivering a large amount of power to the battery pack at once in order to fully charge it in only 30 minutes. The DC fast charger delivers a large amount of power to the battery without using impractically large high ampacity conductors in its circuitry and cords by increasing the charging voltage to 480V, which is double the split-phase voltage of US AC grid electricity of 240V: split-phase electricity and the 3-wire power transmission system were invented by Thomas Edison. The DC fast charger uses a built in step-up transformer, invented by Nikola Tesla, to step-up the grid AC voltage to 480V before converting it to DC using a rectifier: the 1st rectifier, which used a mercury arc Edison Effect vacuum tube, was also invented by Thomas Edison. Elon Musk's batteries can tolerate the higher charging voltages without overheating and exploding because they have stabilizer chemicals in the batteries to make them less reactive to high voltages and heat sinks which are placed underneath the battery tray and exposed to the air to dissipate the heat. Because of Elon Musk's invention of the leak proof battery and DC fast charger, the objections to the use of electric cars which are the short lifespan of the batteries and slow charging times is eliminated, causing Tesla to become the 1st company to sell a large number of electric vehicles at 1,917,450 vehicles sold from the company's founding in 2003 to the present, making Tesla the leading manufacturer of electric cars. Elon Musk also invents the cold gas thruster steering system to increase the maneuverability of his cars. It works by shooting jets of gas, which is stored in a pressurized tank, from nozzles placed around the body of the car. The steering wheel is connected to sensors that monitor the steering wheel's rotation in order to determine which nozzles will shoot the gas out.
Source: https://fortunly.com/statistics/tesla-car-sales-statistics/
2010 - Joe Justice invents the world's 1st carbon fiber reinforced plastic car which has a phenomenal fuel economy of 43km/l and a top speed of 240km/h. Eventually, the Koenigsegg Agera is introduced which is also made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, just like Joe Justice's car, and it sets a record speed 458km/h in 2017.
2013 - Ford invents the tubular boron steel chassis for cars which is much lighter than the conventional i-beam carbon steel chassis, more than doubling the average fuel economy of cars from 13km/l to 27km/l.
2013 - Edison's electric car division, Detroit Electric, produces its own electric sports car, the Detroit Electric SP.01, which has a top speed of 249km/h and a range of 290km with an energy economy of 7.84km/kWh and an equivalent fuel economy 68km/l, making it the most energy efficient car in the world.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric_SP.01
2017 - The Tesla Model 3 sets a new speed record for electric sedans with a top speed of 261km/h and also sets a new record for electric car endurance with a range of 628km and an energy economy of 6.44km/kWh with an equivalent fuel economy of 56km/l. It is also the 1st car in history to have auto-pilot.