Technology At Motat: Cars Report Examples

Museum of Transport and Technology displays huge collection of air and land transport vehicles. The main objective of museum is to collect, renovate and preserve technologies. MOTAT was formed in year 1960 and opened for the public in year 1964 (MOTAT, 2015). My trip to MOTAT on 21st August was turned out very informative. I explored different technologies displayed at the museum such as aircrafts, railway locomotives, trams, and buses. However, I have chosen cars for e-portfolio. The technology in car has evolved significantly over last 100 years and impacted different aspects of human life.

History of Cars

MOTAT displays wide collection of over 100 cars. The museum shows how technology has evolved from horse driven vehicles to petrol and diesel engines in New Zealand. During earlier time around 3200 BC people started developing wooden cars in Middle East. During 18th century steam car was developed by Cugnot in France. However, the car was flopped because it was slower than a horse. Invention of first petrol car occurred around 1885 when Daimler and Benz developed a four wheeler motorcycle which was very raw in terms of look, design and material used. The vehicle was capable to produce only 1hp. Levassor in year 1891 developed a car with front engine and a saloon car after four years (History, 2015).
The blue print of advance car technology was developed in Germany & France, but America dominated this industry. Mass production concept invented by Henry Ford in year 1908 changed the way people used to look at car technology; after invention of this concept car industry became dominated by three American companies Ford, GM (General Motors) & Chrysler. In year 1912 electric starter was developed and it became easy to start the cars. In 1914 car with steel body presented to public and gained popularity. Alexander Issigonis, a British engineer in year 1959 developed Mini Minor car which established a trend of front drive mini cars. Volkswagen in 1971 presented hatchback cars (Autozine, 2000).
After 1980 variety of development took place in car technology. Car technology touched different heights of luxury, safety and environment friendly. In past ten years, companies launched cars with excellent interior and safety features such as ABS, central locking, engine management, music player, memory seat, GPRS, and various other features. Cars are designed in a manner to minimize their impact on environment.

Links to Videos presenting development of car technology:

http://www.history.com/topics/automobiles/videos/the-men-who-built-america-the-every-man
http://www.history.com/topics/automobiles/videos/car-invented-world-drastically-changed

Societal Impacts of Cars Technology

Mass use of car technology has both positive and negative impacts of the society. Winton (2013) in his article talks about how continuous evolving technology is making life of people easier. Advance car technology allows people to drive safely to their destination by watching their favourite program and listening music. Auto driven cars will reduce accidents significantly and also reduce travel time (Winton, 2013). Different car technology such as computerized parking, ABS breaking, and multiple speed levels not only enhanced driving experience but also reduced chances of accidents. Electric cars are designed to minimize the green house emission and consumption of fuel.
The use of car has variety of negative impacts on society and overall environment. Companies are continuously improving technology and making driving better, faster and safer. Car technology is affordable which encourages the mass uses of cars. People from middle and lower class can easily afford to purchase a vehicle, which positively contributed in increasing global warming. In some developing countries rules and regulations are not very strict and people drive vehicles that emit huge amount of carbon. Another negative aspect of car technology is road accidents. Every year huge number of people loses their lives, or body parts in road accidents. Advance car technology allows people to get high speed in few seconds which sometimes result in road accidents (Environmental Impacts from Automobiles , 2015).

Future of Cars

Cars are packed with a number of astonishing features. Considering the research and innovations in auto sector, the future of cars appear to be full of features and facilities. If all innovations and technical developments are implemented appropriately then cars of the future are expected to be equipped with a number of security, utility, cosines, and entertainment features. Car manufacturers in the United States are working in tandem with government agencies in order to reduce road accidents with the help of technology. This technology is named as V2V or vehicle to vehicle communication. Car companies are intensively working for making cars that can perfectly drive themselves. The idea of Self-parking is also in pipeline and future cars will park itself and drivers do not need to waste their time in parking vehicles. Companies are working hard to make cars accident free and pollution free. Future cars are designed to run on multiple vehicles with large storage capacity.

References

Automobiles. (2015). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from History: http://www.history.com/topics/automobiles
Environmental Impacts from Automobiles . (2015, April). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from Yosemite: http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/owcm.nsf/Product+Stewardship/autos-impacts
Introduction. (2015). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from Motat: http://www.motat.org.nz/about-motat
Technology development during the past 100 years. (2000). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from Autozine: http://www.autozine.org/Misc/Article/tech_history/tech_history.htm
Winton, N. (2013, August 11). Cars That Drive Themselves Will Have Some Awesome Consequences. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2013/11/08/cars-that-drive-themselves-will-have-some-awesome-consequences/