Automobiles once had hood ornaments.Until they didn’t. A video by Zack Pradel.
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Americans used to smoke cigarettes, and they smoked them while driving, so cars had ashtrays and cigarette lighters. The lighter’s electric elements would broil cigarette ends, filling the car with a toasty aroma. Your car probably has a vestigial lighter today. A video by Zack Pradel explains.
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Coachmaker and blacksmith Charles Richard (“C.R.”) Patterson of Greenfield, Ohio founded C.R. Patterson & Son coachworks in 1893, producing buggies, buckboards, phaetons, surreys and other horse-drawn carriages, about 500 each year. After the death of his son Samuel, his eldest son Frederick Douglas Patterson moved home to help Patterson senior with the business. C.R. died in 1910, and Frederick Patterson added automoblie repair to the company’s services.
The first C.R. Patterson and Sons automobile was assembled in 1915, a two-door coupe, the first motorcar produced by a Black-owned company. Of the 100 or so autos produced by Patterson, none are still in exsistence. The firm couldn’t compete with the Ford assembly line, so the company switched to producing trucks and buses. There was brisk demand for the latter, especially schoolbuses, and Patterson manufactured 500 buses a month, producing as many as 7,000 between 1921 and 1931. One-third of the school buses in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were thought to be Pattersons. Although the Depression closed the business in 1939, some Patterson buses were still on the roads as late as the 1950s.
C.R. Patterson and Frederick Patterson were inducted into Detroit’s Automotive Hall of Fame in 2021.
More:
“How America’s first — and only — Black automakers defied the odds,”Kevin Williams, Washington Post
“The Only African American Automobile Company,” National Museum of African American History & Culture
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In the 1930s, dashboard AM radios (Audio Modulation) became a standard feature in US cars, and drivers could change stations safely with push-button tuning. In the 1950s and early 60s, teenagers cruised the streets listening to Rock n’ Roll from radio DJs like Murray the K, Alan Freed, Robin Seymour, and Wolfman Jack. AM radio became part of driving for these baby boomers.
1970s car radios included the FM (Frequency Modulation). FM delivers music with less static and greater sound range, often in stereo. Music broadcasters (and listeners) moved to the FM band. AM stations are fine for voice transmission, and can be heard over greater distances. AM became the kingdom of talk radio, often religious or conservative political opinion shows.
So: talk radio, mostly conservative, is largely broadcast on AM to conservative and older listeners, prone to listening to radio in their cars. Works all the way around, right? Except that tomorrow’s electric cars likely won’t have AM radios. It costs too much to shield them from motor interference. Yet another reason for conservative oldsters to hang on to their gas burners, no matter how right-wing Tesla boss Elon Musk gets.
If a reasonably-priced workaround isn’t found, talk radio broadcasters will have to transition to FM, or teach old-timers how to use podcasts.
More:
“Will Electric Cars Kill AM Radio?”, Jim Motavalli, Autoweek
“In a Future Filled With Electric Cars, AM Radio May Be Left Behind,” Michael Levenson, New York Times
“The End of Terrestrial Radio? Electric Cars and AM Radio,” Jim Flammang, Consumer Reports
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Cruising is legal again in Sacramento after years of discriminatory ordinances targeting Chicanos. Lowriders are cruising again. Hopping, bouncing, and skipping, too.
More:
“Cruising is back in Sacramento, how locals are celebrating a change decades in the making,” Luke Cleary, KXTV ABC10
“Lawmakers Urge More Cities to Repeal Cruising Bans,” California City News
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How to build a Ferrari. A look inside Ferrari’s car factory in Maranello, Italy.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that, since July 2021, 392 car crashes in the United States ocurred while vehicles were using advanced driver-assistance systems. Of these, 273, about 70 percent, were Tesla vehicles running its Autopilot software. During the same period, Honda reported 90 crashes and Subaru reported 10 crashes.
More:
“Teslas running Autopilot involved in 273 crashes reported since last year,” Faiz Siddiqui, Rachel Lerman, and Jeremy B. Merrill, Washington Post
“NHTSA: ‘Self-driving’ cars were linked to 392 crashes in 10 months,” J. Fingas, Engadget
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“Pinto Squire,” written and recorded by Tom Heinl, 2003. The Ford Pinto Squire was the faux-wood paneled, 2-door-plus-tailgate station wagon produced from 1972 to 1980. This not the “woodie” the Beach Boys were singing about.
Bonus: 1972 Ford Pinto Squire commercial.
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By the end of the 19th century, 38% of American cars were electric. But early car batteries were expensive and inefficient, and the vehicles were twice the price of a gas-powered car. Enter the cheap Model T, and goodbye electric autos. Now that gas-powered cars have warmed the climate, can the market for electric cars heat up again? A TED-Ed video by Daniel Sperling and Gil Tal, narrated by Jack Cutmore-Scott, and animated by Lobster Studio.
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The Höga is a modular, assemble-yourself elecric-powered concept for an urban car. If Ikea and Renault had a baby, it might look like this, shipped as 374 pieces, complete with a 3mm hex wrench, for €5,300 ($6,467 USD). This is a thesis project created by transportation design student Ryan Schlotthauer.
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