Automobiles (or cars) are a mode of transportation on land that uses an internal combustion engine to move, usually with four wheels. They are a subset of motor vehicles which also include trucks/lorries and buses. Automobiles are the most widely used form of personal transportation in the world. In terms of total numbers of vehicles, they have surpassed ships and airplanes as the dominant means of global travel.

The scientific and technical building blocks of the automobile can be traced back several hundred years. In the late 1600s, Christiaan Huygens invented a steam engine sparked by gunpowder. By the 1880s, Nikolaus Otto and Gottlieb Daimler had developed gasoline engines for passenger transport.

Henry Ford introduced the mass production of cars in the early 1900s. This enabled manufacturers to offer many models at low prices, a trend that continues today. The development of the automobile has changed society in many ways.

For example, automobiles allowed women to drive, something which had never happened before. It led to more women being able to go into work in factories or other jobs which were traditionally men’s roles. It also helped the push for women’s suffrage.

While these changes have had positive aspects, the automobile has also brought with it problems such as air pollution, congestion and a drain on dwindling world oil reserves. In addition, automobiles produce a lot of waste and are expensive to manufacture, recycle and dispose of. It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of an automobile’s environmental impact is from its fuel consumption and emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.