The evolution of automotive technology : a handbook This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile conceived as a cultural history of its technology aimed at engineering students and all those who wish to have a concise introduction into the basics of automotive technology and its long term development. Its approach is systemic and includes the behavior of drivers producers nonusers victims and other stakeholders as well as the discourse around mobility. Nowadays students of innovation prefer the term co evolution emphasizing the parallel and mutually dependent development of technology and society. This acknowledges the importance of contingency and of the impact of the past upon the present the very reason why The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook looks at car technology from a long term perspective. Often we will conclude that the innovation was in the (re)arrangement of existing technologies. Since its beginnings car manufacturers have brought a total of 1 billion automobiles to the market. We are currently witnessing an explosion toward the second billion. Looking back we can see this history evolve through five distinctive phases: Emergence (1880 1917) Persistence (1917 1940) Exuberance (1945 1973) Doom (1973 2000) Confusion (2001 present). The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps us understand how these phases impacted society and in turn shows us how car technology was influenced by car users themselves.