Editing Automobile (section)

== Basic Automotive History ==
The first thing that could be called an automobile was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1770 to tow cannons for the French Army: it weighed 2.5 tonnes, chugged along at 3.6 km and lacked such luxuries as "brakes" but it could move under it's own power. The French Army, understandably declined. The next century would see some more tinkerers and engineers continue to experiment with the idea of free-range steam powered vehicles and there was steady improvement in designs throughout the 19th century, but their success was marginal. Steam tractors carved out a niche and there were a few buses latter on, but most attempts never got beyond one off prototype.

This changed between 1884-6 when a guy named Karl Benz built the first Internal Combustion Engine powered car (''Bendz Patent Moterwagen'') and his wife figured out how to market it. After that, cars became profitable as somewhat useful if dangerous novelties for the wealthy and gradually as mid-range transportation. In short timespan, each industrialized nation had some small operations making cars for their local market. Mass motorization would really begin in the US (which was well industrialized had a lot of space, oil and a large fairly affluent population) most famously with Henry Ford and his Model T in 1907. This set a model which other nations would try to match.

By the 1940s, the full impact of the car was felt. During WWII, the Allies (hell, fucking ''Canada'') had a key advantage as they could crap out more trucks than the Axis, which meant that it could move soldiers and supplies about far easier in the field. After the War the Car played a major role in reshaping cities, as when the GIs came home many of them got new houses in new Single Family suburbs designed with cars front and center, which an enlarged Detroit was more than happy to provide in bulk with an eye on making them bigger, faster and more powerful.

Of course, this did not mean that automobiles were all positive. Mass motorization consumed a lot of gas, and the gas Shortage of 1973 had a major impact on the US from the near collapse of the US auto industry and the rise of Japan. Air pollution would also be another, with regulations added to clean the air from the 1970s onward and efforts to develop cars with a less pronounced footprint being pushed forward. From catalytic converters to hybrids to battery-powered electric vehicles.