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Book - The Evolution of Automotive Technology

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is promoting a new book, which really sounds intriguing. It may interest the hard-core car nuts.

Here's the promo:

"This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile, conceived as a cultural history of technology. Looking back, we can see this history evolve through five distinctive phases:

"The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps readers understand how these phases impacted society and, in turn, shows us how car technology was influenced by car users themselves. "

I wasn't aware we were in the phase of automotive Confusion, but at least we've moved beyond Doom.

Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell, but maybe somebody owes you a belated Christmas present. The Table of Contents, which you'll find a link to here, looks very interesting:

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Reply to
Ed Huntress
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I don't think I agree with that time-line at all, unless it's strictly from the point of view of the designer.

Notably, in the teens and 20's, there were more car brands than you could shake a stick at, with a huge number of mechanical variations being tried before the automotive world settled on a front-to-back lineup of radiator, engine, transmission, driveline, rear axle. Styling wasn't static, either, with car styling in the early 1900's looking a lot like a buggy that lost it's horse somewhere, and ending up by the mid 20's with things that had all the styling elements of cars up to 1949. I think that counts as "exuberance" a lot more than it counts as "persistence".

Skipping forward, I don't see much confusion in car design today, or at least in fuel-powered car design. Yes, we've got 'lectrics and hybrids in the mix, but they're such a small market share that I hardly see them casting fear and doubt into any but the most susceptible minds.

Don't think I don't have issues with the categories in between -- I just don't have the energy to pick it apart.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Having neither read the book nor parsed the nouns, I'll pass on making a judgement.

I found the table of contents much more interesting.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

All SAE books are expensive as Hell. They have to recoup their officers expense accounts someway. It does sound pretty interesting, though.

Reply to
Steve Walker

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