If we widen the road, there is better traffic flow for a few weeks or months. Then, it's jammed again. No matter how much we do this, the road will always have traffic jams.

Adding more lanes

<ul><li>first observed in the US, in the 1930s</li></ul>Once the road is clogged, people seek alternatives, like bikes, buses, and trains.Once the road is widened, people find that driving is faster again, thus switching to driving cars again.

Induced demand

No. There simply isn't enough space in cities.

Can we solve traffic by adding more roads?

The less capacity a road has, the more people choose other alternatives.Investing in other means of traffic, like bike lanes and public transit.

What's the solution?

<ul><li>Less noise pollution</li><li>Less air pollution</li><li>Safer streets for children and pets</li></ul>

Traffic becomes a lot less painful

A developed country is not where everyone drives a car. It's where nobody needs a car to get around.

Don't forget:

Another video from Adam Something, I found it very interesting. 🚗🛣️🚃

Induced demand explained to those who might be unaware! Check out my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/adamsomething Join my Discord: https://discord.gg/2YcarWsc8S Second channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamSomethingElse

Urban improvement

Why Roads always fill up, no matter how much we widen them

The Californian auto brand is set to challenge Elon Musk and Tesla's electric vehicle empire with its stylish zero-emission family model, which has a range of 275 to 390 miles, depending on specification.

The entry version of the Fisker Ocean - called the Sport - links a 'Touring Range' battery to a 275bhp electric motor powering the front wheels, meaning a 0-to-60mph sprint time of 6.6 seconds and an estimated range of 275 miles. It will start from £34,990, meaning it does not qualify for the <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-9377363/EVs-Government-subsidise-slashed-plug-car-grant.html">Plug-in Car Grant of £1,500 </a>. That said, it is some £8,000 less than the cheapest Tesla Model 3 saloon and a massive £20,000 under the least expensive Model Y SUV - though lowest-spec versions of both Teslas offer better ranges and performance stats.

Inside, the cabin is 'fully vegan', with cloth materials made from reclaimed fishing nets, T-shirts and rubber The Fisker Ocean has a number of party pieces up its sleeve. Among these is a rotating 17.1-inch infotainment screen that can swivel from landscape to portrait view at the push of a button when at a standstill

UK Fisker Oceans, which will be produced in Austria, are set to arrive from the second quarter of 2023 with performance to rival Tesla's vehicles.

Inspirational

Tesla's new EV rival coming to the UK: Fisker Ocean to start from £35k

Austrian Karl Benz invented the first true automobile in the 19th century.It was powered by an internal combustion engine and had three wheels.

1886 – The first car is invented 

Explore the history of car technology and how it has transformed the way we drive. We’ve put together a timeline showing the evolution of car tech, from the first car to ever be invented to a raft of post-war technology including safety features and electric systems.

TIMELINE INFOGRAPHIC: A HISTORY OF CAR TECHNOLOGY

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">1886 – The first car is invented</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1908 – Ford produced Model T</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1911 – Electric ignition starters</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1921 – Cigarette lighters</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1930 – Car radio</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1934 – Coil spring suspension</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1949 - Car keys</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1951 – Power steering</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1953 – Air conditioning</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1958 – Cruise control</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1959 – Seatbelts</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1960s – Electric windows</li><li class="ql-align-justify">1969 – Intermittent windshield wipers</li><li>1970s – Cassette tape stereos</li><li>1971 – ABS technology</li></ul>

The timeline infographic: 1886 to 1971

<ul><li>1973 – Catalytic converter</li><li>1974 - Digital dashboard displays</li><li>1984 – CD players</li><li>1988 – Airbags</li><li>1992 – Electromagnetic parking sensors</li><li>1994 – On-board diagnostics</li><li>1996 – Connected cars</li><li>2000 – GPS sat nav</li><li>2000 – Hybrid cars</li><li>2001 – Bluetooth</li><li>2002 – Reversing camera</li><li>2003 – Automatic parking</li><li>2010s – Driver assist features</li><li>2014 – Tesla autopilot</li><li>2014 – 4G wi-fi hotspots</li><li>2020 - Self-driving cars</li></ul>

The timeline infographic: 1973 to 2020

Ford’s Model T was the world’s first car produced by assembly line. This great leap in technology made the car much cheaper and therefore more widely affordable. Its 20 horsepower petrol engine could reach speeds of 45mph, which was still slower than the galloping horses of the day.

1908 – Ford produced Model T 

Electric ignition starters were invented to replace manual hand cranks and to start the engine with a button instead. Hand cranks were considered to be dangerous because the engine could jump as the car started, occasionally injuring the driver. The first electric starter was used on a Cadillac in 1912 and they were soon widely adopted.

1911 – Electric ignition starters

Wireless cigarette lighters had a removable component that was heated by electricity. By 1925 they were standard in most American cars. Today cigarette lighters have fallen out of fashion, but we still have the sockets to plug in electric gadgets, like sat navs.

1921 – Cigarette lighters 

The first car stereo was created in 1930 in monophonic AM frequency. For the first time, driving could be set to music, though it would be another 22 years before the first radio capable of receiving FM frequency was added to a car, in 1952.

1930 – Car radio

Many carmakers began looking at ways to make driving more comfortable, and they landed on coil spring suspension. Each wheel (initially just the front two) was given its own metal coil spring, which compresses itself to absorb the shock you feel when driving over bumps in the road. This made for a much smoother, relaxing ride.

1934 – Coil spring suspension

Looking for a better way to get the car running, Chrysler invented a technology to start both the electric starter and the ignition. It placed this power inside a key and soon everyone was using one.

1949 - Car keys

Power steering technology uses hydraulic power to amplify the pressure on the wheels as you as you turn the steering wheel, saving you so much elbow grease. Power steering first appeared on a Chrysler Imperial and then in a Cadillac a year later.

1951 – Power steering

The Chrysler Imperial was the first production car to have <a href="https://www.jardinemotors.co.uk/servicing-and-parts/air-conditioning-maintenance/">air conditioning </a> as an option. It came with three settings: low, medium and high. The following year, the Nash “Integrated” system offered front end heating, ventilation and air conditioning, making driving a much more pleasurable experience in the summer.

1953 – Air conditioning

Cruise control is a system developed to allow the driver to maintain a constant speed without the use of the accelerator. The system made steady driving easier, especially on motorways. It was first used in another Chrysler Imperial and by 1960 it was a standard feature on all Cadillacs too.

1958 – Cruise control

The modern three-pin seatbelt was invented by Nils Bohlin, Volvo’s first safety engineer. Volvo decided to give away the patent to other carmakers for free, knowing it would save lives.It was compulsory for carmakers to fit seatbelts in the UK from 1965, but only compulsory to wear them in the front seats from 1983. Wearing a seatbelt became compulsory for all children from 1989 and for back seat passengers from 1991.

1959 – Seatbelts

The smooth buzz of rolling down an electric window was originally only available on luxury models,and it was usually an optional extra on most cars until quite recently. But eventually winding down your car windows became a thing of the past.

1960s – Electric windows

Until this point, windscreen wipers had only had one speed, no matter the weather. Ford changed this to adjust the speed.

1969 – Intermittent windshield wipers

In the 1970s, carmakers began adding stereos that could play the latest cassette tape technology. Now drivers could blast out their favourite Led Zeppelin albums from their cars!

1970s – Cassette tape stereos

ABS or Anti-Lock Braking System, is a clever technology that stops the wheels locking up during sharp braking, preventing skidding.It was originally used on trains and Concorde aircraft, before being adapted for a Chrysler Imperial.

1971 – ABS technology

This technology was designed to clean up polluting exhaust fumes by reducing toxic emissions created by the engine. Catalytic converters became compulsory in petrol cars from 1993.

1973 – Catalytic converter

Move over analogue dials! The first digital dashboard display appeared in an <a href="https://www.jardinemotors.co.uk/aston-martin/">Aston Martin </a> Lagonda. It included trip computers, speed and temperature readings and fuel economy measures. However, digital dashboards weren’t that popular with drivers at the time, and most cars today still use an analogue speedometer alongside the digital displays.

1974 – Digital dashboard displays

Technology called CDX-1 became the first car CD player, eventually supplanting cassette tapes, which had become old technology.

1984 – CD players

Previous iterations of airbags were installed in US government cars from the 1970s, but in 1988 Chrysler introduced the first production airbag.Originally they were just for drivers, but today airbag technology can be placed all around the car to protect all passengers.

1988 – Airbags

Electromagnetic parking sensors alert you to hazards when parking. They were “re-invented” from previous technology that hadn’t taken off in the 1970s.

1992 – Electromagnetic parking sensors

Ford first created computer diagnostics for its factory line in the 1980s. But over time the built-in 16-pin connector became essential for all carmakers because it also gave garage mechanics access to key information about the car for repairs. On-board diagnostics connections became compulsory in America in 1996 and Europe in 2001.

1994 – On-board diagnostics

General Motors launched connected cars with its OnStar system, which used your mobile phone to call 911 in an accident. Today the technology links with the phones’ GPS location to guide the emergency services straight to the car.

1996 – Connected cars

There were versions of GPS sat nav systems built in from the early 90s, but the US military added interference to the signals as they guarded the technology closely. In 2000, US President Bill Clinton ordered the military to stop scrambling GPS signals and open the technology up to everyone. Sat navs were quickly developed, though it was several more years before they were more accurate.

2000 – GPS sat nav

Adding a hybrid motor to a petrol engine was first dreamed up in the 19th century, but the idea was deemed unworkable. <a href="https://www.jardinemotors.co.uk/toyota/">Toyota </a>picked it up again at the turn of the century and invented the Prius, taking the world by storm. Today every carmaker is working on <a href="https://www.jardinemotors.co.uk/used-cars/hybrid/">hybrid cars</a>.

2000 – Hybrid cars

The first hands-free bluetooth kit appeared in 2001. Later that year, an even better bluetooth technology came out that worked with speech recognition. These days bluetooth is integrated with the cars’ infotainment system.

2001 – Bluetooth

This technology has prevented many a reversing mishap. Little cameras stream live footage of the area behind the car as you reverse. The technology was first used outside of America in a Nissan Primera.

2002 – Reversing camera

Toyota was first to launch this tech with its Intelligent Parking Assist that helped drivers parallel park. In 2006, <a href="https://www.jardinemotors.co.uk/lexus/">Lexus </a>added a self-parking system to the LS model. Automatic parking is now available on many new cars.

2003 – Automatic parking

Dozens of automatic technology features have been developed to assist the driver. Common examples include, lane departure warnings, blind spot warnings, cross traffic alerts and headlamp high beam control.Carmakers have also begun adding smartphone integration, with many producing apps so you can find your car via GPS, and remotely lock the car and check its fuel levels.

2010s – Driver assist features

Elon Musk was the first to offer autopilot technology on the Model S.It’s the first commercially available driver assistance that can steer the car and even change lanes on the motorway.

2014 – Tesla autopilot

This new technology can turn your car into a travelling 4G router, meaning passengers can use it to connect smart devices to the Internet.

2014 – 4G wi-fi hotspots

2020 is the projected release date of Google’s self-driving car, the Waymo. It completed its first driverless ride on public roads in 2015 in Austin Texas with a blind man behind the wheel.

2020 - Self-driving cars

Gesture controls Forget touchscreen – carmakers are already working on making displays that respond to gesture control.Biometric access Sorry 1949, but one day car keys might be a thing of the past! Carmakers are working on technology to let you unlock and start your car with your fingerprint.Windscreen displays Soon all the information you need about the car could be displayed on smart glass in the windscreen.

Bonus: CAR TECHNOLOGY IN THE FUTURE

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://mashable.com/2015/01/05/car-tech-ces/">http://mashable.com/2015/01/05/car-tech-ces/</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-history-of-car-radios">http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-history-o...</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/tips-and-advice/154199/how-airbags-work">http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/tips-and-advice/154199/h...</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://www.rospa.com/road-safety/advice/vehicles/in-car-safety-and-crashworthiness/seat-belts-history/">http://www.rospa.com/road-safety/advice/vehicles/i...</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/8-great-new-advances-in-auto-technology-1.aspx">http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/8-gre...</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="https://www.bluetooth.com/about-us/bluetooth-origin/">https://www.bluetooth.com/about-us/bluetooth-origin/</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify"><a href="http://uk.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-ratings/64623/news/the-history-of-car-gps-navigation">http://uk.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-r...</a></li></ul>

Sources

Explore our timeline infographic tracking every development in the history of car technology, from the first car ever invented to the internet age & beyond.

Cars Evolution

The History of Car Technology

In 2015, the Guardian predicted that self-driving cars would be the norm in 2020. The Business Insider announced in 2016 that there would be 10 million self-driving cars on the road by 2020. Yet, engineering teams are still struggling to make fully autonomous cars work properly.

Not ready for self-driving cars 

The idea behind self-driving cars is to fit a vehicle with cameras that can track all the objects around it and let the car avoid those objects. Then teach in-car computers the rules of the road and let them navigate to their destination. But driving is more than a list of rules. Humans make eye contact to confirm who has the right of way, react to weather conditions, and make judgment calls that are difficult to encode into hard rules. Even tracking objects around a car on the road is more complex.

How self-driving cars work

Self-driving cars rely on artificial intelligence (AI). In the 2010s, there were considerable advances in AI. This progress drove optimistic predictions for self-driving cars.  But the limitations of AI became evident. One problem is the need for training data (billions of hours of footage of actual driving) and teaching the computer good driving behaviour.

Why there is a delay

In the future, it is likely that taxi and ride-hailing companies will offer self-driving cars instead of paying drivers. Self-driving cars can also make a difference in people with disabilities who can't move around freely. However, polls show that most Americans don't want to be driven around by a self-driving car. Researchers argue that widespread self-driving cars first need significant changes made to the streets to make it easier to communicate information to those cars.

A world with self-driving cars

Many major car manufacturers have tested the waters with self-driving car research. Two statistics are helpful in evaluating how advanced a self-driving car program is: <ul><li>How many miles it has driven (training data and investment to get cars on the road), and </li><li>Disengagement (how many times human drivers had to take over.)</li></ul> In 2018, Waymo drove 1.2 million miles with 0.09 disengagements every 1,000 miles. General Motors' Cruse drove half a million miles and 0.19 disengagements per 1,000 miles.

The leading self-driving car programs

In 2018, a self-driving Uber car ran down and killed a pedestrian walking her bicycle across the street. The near-range cameras and ultrasonic sensors were not in use at the time of the crash. The system also had false alarms and failed to identify her because she did not cross at a crosswalk. In 2018 Tesla's Autopilot system was implicated in a lethal accident where the car steered into a concrete divider. There were three more deadly Tesla crashes.

Safety issues with self-driving cars

Some advocates claim that self-driving cars may reduce car trips as car ownership may become redundant. Others argue that people drive in a wasteful way. But there's not much evidence that computers are more fuel-efficient drivers. Studies also show that people will go on more trips if the cars are more fuel-efficient or if a vehicle could drive itself.

Self-driving cars and the environment

It's not uncommon for technology to be dangerous when it is invented and then refined into a valuable part of life. The first aeroplanes were dangerous and commercially useless. While companies boast about their progress, they hesitate to put their cars on the road when they're not ready. They are aware that killing someone, as has happened, will probably spell doom for their business. Despite the progress made, some sceptics think that fully self-driving cars might never happen.

The future of self-driving cars

Engineering teams at Tesla, GM, Honda, and others are struggling to make self-driving cars work properly.

Stashed ideas

Where are our self-driving cars?

Music is important to people individually and on a societal level. Music is greatly influential to the state of technology. The devices we use to listen to music shape the technological landscape.
But when did earbuds become synonymous with a portable music player, and where did it all start?

The social and personal importance of music

Music has always been an important part of human culture. Until 1877, people could only listen to music when someone was playing, whether in a concert hall or at home.
But Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph revolutionised the consumption of music. Sounds to be recorded were transmitted through a recording stylus, which would make indentations on a phonograph cylinder. A playback stylus could read the recording and play it through a diaphragm and horn.

The story of music consumption: The phonograph

In the 1890s, the transition to flat-disc records began. The recording was etched onto a disc we today recognise as a record. The main advantage of the disc record was that it could be mass-produced, whereas a phonograph had to be recorded individually. Discs were first sold in a five-inch version, then seven-inch, then a ten-inch, and finally a 12-inch version. Interest in double-sided records started to rise in 1903, and Edison took the opportunity to make a 1/4-inch disc that could only be played on Edison Disc Phonographs.

The flat-disc record

At first, the flat-disc record was made from shellac. Only after WWII, vinyl replaced shellac as it was a lighter and more durable material. The transition to vinyl happened together with the change from 78 rpm to 33 1/3 rpm, which allowed a larger amount of music to be recorded on a single disc. A 10-inch, 78 rpm disc contained about three minutes of music. Long songs were split across several discs, each contained in a sleeve bound into a book format, leading to the term "record album."

From shellac to vinyl recordings

A 12-inch vinyl, 33 rpm record could contain about 20 minutes of music on a side. This longer-playing (LP) format began to dominate the market. 45 rpm records became popular after the war, most containing a single song on each side, known as "singles." Extended-play (EP) 45s were also added, and they contained two songs on each side. From here on, changes were focused on the hardware used to turn the disc.

The LP player

During WWI (and WWII), the US Congress suspended all amateur radio broadcasts. In 1919, shortly after WWI, 1XE of Medford, Massachusetts, was broadcasting music. Then more music radio stations began to pop up. But they met with resistance. People thought radio was only supposed to be used for two-way communication. Commercially licensed stations started to appear, and by 1930, 60 % of American families purchased radio receivers. Many stations only started broadcasting music after they had been on the air for a while.

Music radio

In 1922, the first radio advertisement changed the future of music broadcasting. Before that, companies would sponsor musical programs known by names like Champion Spark Plug Hour or King Biscuit Time. The rise of the top 40 stations in the early 50s influenced how music radio operates to this day. The higher fidelity magnetic recording made it possible to broadcast pre-recorded programs in the 1940s.

The top 40 stations

In 1958, the RCA tape cartridge changed the future of home music consumption. The high-quality audio had been encoded onto a magnetic tape medium for home use. In 1964, the 8-track Lear tape was introduced. Other tape formats were already available in the home market, but the inclusion of 8-track players in many cars led to it becoming the dominant format of the day.

The RCA tape cartridge

In the early 1970s, the compact Phillips cassette tape began to rise to domination of the automobile music market. The small size counted in their favour. When the manufacturers started making smaller, portable tape decks, the cassette's place in music was sure. The innovation of the Sony Walkman in 1979 was even more important. The small portable stereo tape player made music listening more accessible for personal use as it was no longer tied to large record players.

The Sony Walkman

<ul><li>It was not until the early 1980s that the first commercial compact discs (CDs) appeared. The format was standardised in 1980.</li><li>Before the CD, magnetic tape data was read mechanically. The use of a laser to read the data on a disc was a huge leap forward in audio technology and dominated the market into the early 2000s.</li><li>CD-ROMs (CD-read only memory) debuted in 1985, and further improvements led to the Video CD, Super Video CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray discs.</li></ul>

The digital age: Compact disc

<ul><li>In 1982, an electrical engineering PhD student Karlheinz Brandenburg was challenged to find a way to transmit music over digital phone lines.</li><li>Advanced technology that could separate sounds into three sections, or layers, enabled Brandenburg and his colleagues to discard obscured sounds without a real loss in quality. This led to the ability to encode files with fewer bitrates.</li><li>The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) were tasked to create worldwide standards in audio recording. The standard created included Layers I, II, and III.</li></ul>

The history of MP3

The invention of Napster shook up the music work. Napster was a simple, free, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing service that focused on MP3 sharing. This free distribution of music was attacked by the music industry and shut down in 2001. Many other P2P file-sharing services sprung up and were also shut down. P2P music sharing still exists, with BitTorrent one of the most popular formats that are much harder to shut down.

Peer to peer music sharing

In 1996, MP3s players found their way into listeners pockets. At first, the rudimentary systems could hold six to twelve songs, but the Apple iPod changed the market in 2001. It held up to 1,000 songs. iTunes debuted in 2001 with the iPod as the world's best jukebox software. It has been the single largest distributor of music in the world since 2010. iTunes does not use the MP3 format but Advanced Audio coding (AAC) format, and although MP3 is still used, AAC has more industry support.

Apple iPod dominating the market

Pandora pioneered the style of music recommendation service that would become a huge trend in modern music. The idea was of a service that allowed listeners to hear music from thousands of artists without buying any album. The battle over royalties paid to artists are constant and not limited to Pandora. Despite the drop in album sales and the small earnings of artists, streaming services are doing well.

The streaming revolution

Many people are looking for an easy listening experience that allows them to consume and not create. That is why many people are looking into "zero-UI" music players, where the player would ideally need no interaction from the listener. From a broader range of information made available through demographic data, Facebook and Twitter, heart rate, temperature, etc., it would generate highly targeted playlists that would work with the user's taste and context. But the future of music consumption is uncertain at the moment. A move back to complete control is not out of the question.

The future of music listening

The rise of the iPod, the music-playing mobile phone, and a number of streaming media platforms all point toward a single, simple idea: music is important. But how did we get here?

Why Roads always fill up, no matter how much we widen them

Tesla's new EV rival coming to the UK: Fisker Ocean to start from £35k

The History of Car Technology

Where are our self-driving cars?

The Evolution of Music Consumption: How We Got Here

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