The evolution of automobiles

Ford T-model 1908 was a significant step in the evolution of cars
Any color as long as it is black

The vocabulary of biological evolution can and has been used also in other fields of research, for example calling the life-cycle of stars "stellar evolution". The following pseudo-report tries to use evolutionary concepts and terminology in describing changes taking place through time in inanimate objects.

Using evolutionary terminology is quite appropriate also when talking about latest changes in digital technology and devices; see for example Tom Chatfield's BBC-Future Technology article August 30, 2012 where he correctly writes "Rather, the combination of blistering pace with brutally Darwinian levels of competition exerts a considerable pressure towards its inverse: homogenization."

Autologists (sometimes called carlogists) study the history, present state and future of automobiles. The word is derived from auto (by itself, as in automatic) and mobile (to move), i.e. something that moves by itself. The name automobile thus underlines the difference between various carriage species that move on wheels but are being pulled (or pushed) by animals or people and the car and motorcycle species that move themselves powered by some sort of engine (not by wind). See below about the definition and evolution of locomotives and bicycles.

Planet Earth has been experiencing such a great radiation of different automobile types that we can speak of autodiversity. The great variety of types and categories can be scientifically explained evolutionary theory focusing on environmental and other factors in human selection and survival of the fittest. The deeper forces are operational in the merciless competition for success in a complex network involving environmental change, impact of various automobile species on the environment, influence of social change in the human society with which car evolution is tightly related, fluctuations in market forces and even such hard to define aspects as the impact of unpredictable human fashions and tastes on the market and thus the survival or failure of different automobile models.


Origin of automobiles

Two horsepower Alpine Horse and Carriage model
Lake Tekapo - New Zealand 

Scientists divide the history into two major eras, the Equidae era and the Automobile era. Little is known about the earliest prehistoric periods before the arrival of the species equidae, such as donkey (Equus asinus) and horse (Equus ferus caballus) in ancient societies. Other means of animal driven transport evolved in special environments, for example, camel (Camelus)in the desert, llama (Lama glama) in the high mountains or dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) pulling sledges in Arctic regions.

The Equidae era ends in a rapid mass-extinction of all horse and carriage types as well as a sharp decline in the horse and rider type of transport. These are not totally extinct, however, but lost their prominence within only a few decades after the evolution of locomotive and automobile species.

There is general consensus that automobiles evolved from the background of Equidae period types.  This is shown already by the nomenclature reflecting similarities - wheel, brakes, carriage, cart, even the word automobile which emphasizes difference to vehicles pulled by animals but involves the same category of transport. The use of the archaic term "horse power" supports the commonly held view that the evolution of cars is closely related to the horse and carriage type.


Origin of bicycles and motorcycles 

Penny-farthing is not part of the automobile evolutionary tree

Researches have different opinions about the origins of bicycles and motorcycles. According to minority view, these have organic roots in horse and rider as they usually lack cabin (some motorcycles have evolved a side-cabin allowing for transportation of another rider) and the rider sits on the vehicle.

According to the majority view, however, the evolution of bicycles and motorbykes is not linked to the Equasterian period forms. Furthermore, these scholars tend to separate the evolution of man-powered bicycles and engine powered motorcycles into two different lines. Many experts consider motorcycle as a two-wheel species that actually evolved from or parallel with the four-wheeled engine driven car.

Three-wheeled motorized vehicles have also evolved but are fairly rare. They are classified somewhere between motorcycles and automobiles depending of specific features that have evolved during the time, especially the presence or absence of a driving wheel.(Three-wheeled bicycles are another species.)


Engine mutations 

Evolution of internal combustion engines
Benz Patent Motorwagen Engine wikimedia

Evolutionary autologists generally agree on the importance of innovation that mutates the genetic chains in car development. But they put the emphasis on the importance of selective processes that determine which variation will flourish and which wither and disappear from the world.

For example, the invention of engine types has had deep impact on the evolution of means of transportation. The mutated motor types strongly influence the properties and Sitz im Leben, place in llife, of the products.

Steam engines are heavy and required a constant source of water, wood and coal fuel to heat the water. This led to the evolution of railroads and locomotives as a significant communal effort that changed the world, for example the future of Northern America where distances are vast and locomotives required peace from buffalo herds, the main means of subsistence to many Native American tribes. Locomotive evolution and mutations in the engines are a different branch of evolutionary science.

Combustion engines using natural oil products created during the Mesozoic era are smaller than steam engines and the fuel can be stored in convenient portable tanks. This led to the origins of automobiles and a parallel evolution to railroads, government level creation and maintenance of road network and chains of gasoline stations that made long distance travel on automobiles possible.

The mutation caused by the invention of Diesel has caused evolutionary changes in automobiles. Only recently have diesel engines evolved to efficiency and size that offer significant competition to gasoline engines. In fact, in some cases only those with serious interest in autology can spot the difference between diesel and gasoline species as they look so similar despite of the differences under the hood.

Environmental concerns - combustion engines produce significant amounts of pollution - and the fact that natural oil supply is limited and expensive has directed the evolution of automobiles towards alternative energy sources to provide the power for movement. Electricity requires a network of loading stations which is expensive to build and maintain and solar power is so far not practical. Tiny nuclear engines could revive the steam engine also in automobiles but at the moment there are natural and human forces resisting such mutations of car engines.


IQ theorists
A group of scientists is proposing that observing the evolution of automobiles (and locomotives and motorcycles) and deducting explanations from the distribution patterns and survival rates of various species is not enough. They stress the role of human innovation, that we can call the IQ factor, in pushing car evolution forward. It is not just a blind set of natural laws combined with chance changes and selection of the fittest.

Evolutionary autologists do agree that human innovation, the IQ factor, has been significant in the same way the mutation of genes is important in biological evolution. However, they emphasize that the input of change is part of the system that is in general regulated and guided by the deeper forces of selection of the fittest. The IQ factor is, according to these scholars, not an incidental element in the process but we gain a better and more accurate model by concentrating on the selection process that decides the success or failure of the variations brought in to the auto industry by human engineers and designers.



Autodiversity

Autodiversity in Beiing today
Greenpacks

Evolutionary theory can satisfactorily explain the rise of the immense diversity of cars, autodiversity, we are witnessing today. Currently there are more automobiles in the world than every before and it is difficult to see when and how the mass-extinction of these things will happen so prevalent they are today.