An automobile is a self-propelled vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine and is used for the transportation of goods and passengers on the ground. In general, the modern automobile is essentially a transportation equipment unit.
It is made up of a frame supporting the body and certain power developing and transmitting units. These are further supported by tires and wheels through springs and axles. An engine supplies the power, which is delivered by the transmission system to the wheels through the clutch or fluid coupling.
What is Automobile Engineering?
Automotive engineering is a branch concerned with designing, developing, manufacturing, testing, repairing, and maintaining motor vehicles such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, etc., and their associated ancillary engineering systems.
For the perfect blend of automobile manufacturing and design, Automobile Engineering leverages the characteristics of different engineering elements such as mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering.
Automotive engineering, along with aerospace engineering and naval architecture, is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software, and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufacture, and operation of motorcycles, automobiles, and trucks and their respective engineering subsystems.
It also includes the modification of vehicles. The manufacturing domain deals with the creation and assembling of the whole parts of automobiles is also included in it. The automotive engineering field is research-intensive and involves the direct application of mathematical models and formulas.
The study of automotive engineering is to design, develop, fabricate, and test vehicles or vehicle components from the concept stage to the production stage. Production, development, and manufacturing are the three major functions in this field.
To become a competent automotive engineer, specialized education is essential and it is a profession that requires a lot of hard work, dedication, determination, and dedication. The main job of an automotive engineer is to design, develop, manufacture and test vehicles from the concept phase to the production phase.
Automobile vs. Automotive:
An automobile is also used as a synonym for automotive.
Both terms, automobile and automotive are related to the vehicle industry. The automobile is a noun that usually refers to a four-wheeled automotive vehicle designed for passenger transportation whereas automotive is an adjective relating to motor vehicles. This is the main difference between automobiles and automotive.
Automobile engineering focuses on cars. It manages the design, research, manufacture, and operation of ground-based vehicles.
Automotive Engineering particularly deals with the construction and design of automobiles. Automotive is used as a descriptive word that indicates something that is related to or concerned with engine vehicles.
In common usage, automotive engineering is the same as automobile engineering.
What Does Automotive Engineers Do?
Automotive engineers are concerned with the development of passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, or off-road vehicles. They do one or more of the following:
- Design new products or modify existing ones
- Troubleshoot and solve engineering problems
- Plan and design manufacturing processes
Automotive engineers must apply their engineering skills in a commercial way because their innovations and solutions must be effective and profitable. Their typical responsibilities include:
- Researching, designing, developing and producing vehicles and components
- Preparing cost estimates and design specifications
- Preparing plans and drawings
- Analyzing energy, environmental and safety aspects of the planned project
- Predicting vehicle or component behavior under different conditions using computerized models
- Developing testing procedures
- Investigating product failures
- Analyzing, interpreting and condensing technical data into reports or presentations
- Supervise technical staff
- Working closely with other types of engineers, such as civil, electrical, aerospace, chemical and industrial
- Working with professionals from other occupational fields, such as marketing and legal
Is Automobile Engineering a good career?
Automobile Engineering has much scope in India. This is one of the fastest-growing engineering sectors in India. It includes the basic qualification, approximate salary of automobile engineers, s offers automobile engineering courses. It has good career opportunities in India as well as abroad too.
What is the history of automobile?
The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1800s, though Americans quickly came to dominate the automotive industry in the first half of the twentieth century. Henry Ford innovated mass-production techniques that became standard, and Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler emerged as the “Big Three” auto companies by the 1920s.
Manufacturers funneled their resources to the military during World War II, and afterward automobile production in Europe and Japan soared to meet growing demand. Once vital to the expansion of American urban centers, the industry had become a shared global enterprise with the rise of Japan as the leading automaker by 1980.
Although the automobile was to have its greatest social and economic impact in the United States, it was initially perfected in Germany and France toward the end of the nineteenth century by such men as Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, Nicolaus Otto, and Emile Levassor.
When Were Cars Invented?
The 1901 Mercedes, designed by Wilhelm Maybach for Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, deserves credit for being the first modern motorcar in all essentials.
Its thirty-five-horsepower engine weighed only fourteen pounds per horsepower, and it achieved a top speed of fifty-three miles per hour. By 1909, with the most integrated automobile factory in Europe, Daimler employed some seventeen hundred workers to produce fewer than a thousand cars per year.
Nothing illustrates the superiority of European design better than the sharp contrast between this first Mercedes model and Ransom E. Olds ‘1901-1906 one-cylinder, three-horsepower, tiller-steered, curved-dash Oldsmobile, which was merely a motorized horse buggy.
But the Old’s sold for only $650, putting it within reach of middle-class Americans, and the 1904 Old’s output of 5,508 units surpassed any car production previously accomplished.
The central problem of automotive technology over the first decade of the twentieth century would be reconciling the advanced design of the 1901 Mercedes with the moderate price and low operating expenses of the Olds. This would be overwhelmingly an American achievement.