Automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. Thehistory of automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. It is estimated thatover 100,000 patents created the modern automobile.
Starting in the late 1700s，European engineers began tinkering with motor-poweredvehicles. Steam，combustion，and electrical motor's had all been attempted by the mid1800s. Automotive production on a commercial scale started in France in 1890.Commercial production began at the beginning of the 1900s in the United States. In thosedays, the European industry consisted of small independent firms that would turn out afew cars by means of precise engineering and handicraft methods. The Americanautomobile plants were assembly line operations, which meant using parts made byindependent suppliers and putting them together at the plants.
At the beginning of the century the automobile entered the transportation market as atoy for the rich. Along with the demand for travel freely for the general population,automobile became cheaper and more accessible to the middle class. Henry Ford freedcommon people. The automobile created mobility on a scale never known before，and thetotal effect on living habits and social customs is endless. The convenience of theautomobile freed people from the need to live near rail lines or stations; they could chooselocations almost anywhere in an urban area, as long as roads were available to connectthem to other places.
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