He is the author of are we there yet of are we there yet . the american automobile past,. Esent, and driverless please join me in welcoming him this evening. Thank you so much. Generous and sweet introduction. The smithsonian associate people have reminded me how engaged these audiences are. I really give you my a game to take that seriously. Intellectual, be a little heavy. Theres a lot of material in the book. Myrything from teaching daughter to drive to a freudian analysis. And a little bit of this theory of how one understands that. At the end of the day i want to talk about cars. I am both a lover and hater of cars for a variety of reasons. Lets get started. Keep your hands up. How many of you went to the gift shop afterwards and bought the vinyl record and brought it home and played it . These two, i know them. I realized halfway through it, how many of you own a car . How many of you own a toyota . How many of you own a mercedes . How many of you own an american car . How many of you dont own a car or rarely drive . We are going to talk about cars. The museum of American History , just an back in 1974 thrall. Maybe the Capital Building and see the airplanes, but mostly go to history and technology. I was much fatter back then. This is a stock photo from the smithsonian collection. I want you to get a sense of it. Talk a little bit about what that exhibition tells us about what we think about technology. Prospectpart was the when we face the prospect of Driverless Cars is the process in which they are coming upon us. Its got a collection of objects and labels that specifically say this guy invented it. Very straightforward. As i thought about different ways of understanding technology, i realize this got an implicit story behind it. A technological evolution. Theynes are invented and pingpong their way through our lives. Gutenberg invents the printing press, people learn to read. We dont think about the other way of doing things. Technology shows up and we buy it. That also is reinforced here. There is an implicit understanding that technology was important, that Technology Advances become more efficient over time. Show you quickly, i hope you can hope you can see things. A high see theres wheeler pulling out. We are away from the right to the left. They get better. You can see from the far left ,orner all the way to the back more advance car, more advanced car. To aan see gas pumps there little later one. And of course the centerpiece, the race car. What it isow much like to drive it, how do people experience it . Do people go to races . 2009, i think it is, america on the move. The General Motors transportation hall, the 1401 is in that hall. A gorgeous train. But also there is an intention and purpose. That is to stop organizing them in terms of technical difficulty. Aeres no point in putting six cylinder engine over there. I meant to get over there today. They have a 55 Country Squire wagon. All of that is beautiful. There are people, there is content. I wonder if they are even moving. The kid looked a little unhappy here. You also have the girl with a bicycle. Learning in a sense to drive. Thats a kitty car. Kids like toy cars. The point, children rehearsing what their parents do. You learn how to be an adult. That is part of American Society and culture. Oldschool, this is a 1950 buick. Gorgeous. Ls are those are classic buick symbols. It. s a lot of interesting things to say about it. An effort to make it look heavier. A magic carpet in a lot of ways. The problem is you have to go to a car dealer to buy it. Any car salesman here . One of the most disruptive things is they have been able to avoid car dealership. Leaving that aside, its inconvenient. You touch your phone, that arrives. Some companies are trying to do that. I touch my phone and the thing i know amazon drops a box. That purchase process is not in the system. Thats the way i want to frame it. I dont want to understand so about the context of what it meant. What was it like when you taught your daughter and started to drive . What was it to like to buy it . We think to the way about the process of innovation. You think about Driverless Cars, they are being invented. I will show you the automobile has been invented many times in history. If i asked you off the top of your head when you said. When would you say the automobile was invented . 1900s . 1910. 1898. Specific year. Im going to prove you all wrong. Question is not birth, its adoption. Times. Rn many arereal questions i have two. Not why was it invented, but why was it adopted . Also, what was it, really . Machine forgetting to places. Obviously when the driverless car thats when people think about the driverless car are thinking about it they dont think about how it sits in your driveway for kids to learn what its like to be around and automobile. Thats kind of a strange question. By the same token, you would be surprised to learn that Driverless Cars have been invented many times. Sod about technology in the 30s, tested in the fifth these, and proven viable by governments testing in the 1990s. Two things are important about that. Them, why didnt we pursue them . It turns out as you look at it more deeply, they are very different than the Driverless Cars coming out. Those, look at what Driverless Cars were like and what Driverless Cars are like today. The automobile was invented in 1672. He was a missionary. Turn the emperor into a christian. There is a ball. Very straightforward. Spins a turbine. The big wheel in the back here is for steering. I dont see how that works. The question didnt work very. Ell, but so what why did somebody look at it and go, that is a good start, lets do more . Yearse over the last 400 the chinese decided to pursue rat cars. We see that it was invented and we cant quite say that it didnt work, but we cant say it wasnt adopted. Is 1790. A Steam Powered selfpropelled road vehicle. No u. S. Ime there was Patent Office. The Patent Office hasnt been invented yet. He didnt start selling steam carriages. , noapital available interest. I call this the first amphibious car. Very accomplished engineer, he did a lot with process information innovation and mills. Flower, brad boat that goes a out and digs up the mud. They had this light steam engine in collecting capital rather than getting some guys in the wagon he says im going to put the wheels on it area may be we will call at the first amphibious car. No cars yet. This is one of my favorites. This is 1853. The boiler sat in the middle, people sat on either side. A very successful business running people out to long island. Did about 30 miles per hour. 1909. Odel t came out it perfectly fast. Perfectly viable. Its not about transportation. He wanted to end the fearful misery of horses. This was something developing in this period, this set sensibility toward animals. Here is another version of it. This is 1856. It is in the smithsonian collection. It is not on not on display. Its just a Great Machine to look at. And it does tell us something about road transport. It is also in the collection. Different times in history you had to produce not just a drawing but a physical model of the machine. Hes a patent attorney. He was very smart. Lightweight, hydrocarbon engine. Able to deal with any reasonable incline. 1879 the vehicle is not produced. He kept filing amendments. It kind of extends. You have patent pending. In 1895 the automobile has arrived. The automobile was viable by the mid19th century. Not until the 1890s that its picked up. Here we are at 1900. Many of you drive our own an electric car question mark tesla . One of the Big Questions people always ask is why do you get gasoline cars and nonelectric cars. If you look up the top there are 4000 vehicles in the country. Steam and electric outpace the internal combustion. They say internal combustion cars better. You have to ask yourself a more complicated question. Pigeons cant swim, goldfish cant fly. In fact the electric vehicle had a Good Business model. And also call cleaner, quieter, more sensible. Itcould just crack so forth was very different than the business model. The electric Vehicle Company developed and i want you to think about uber or lift. They have hundreds of taxicabs, most of them in new york city. You could get a sickly a taxi could rent the vehicle for a week or by the vehicle. What they found as they had a hard time buying taxi service. It was a viable business. A couple of things culturally i will talk about in a minute. , one of of a business the things is an attack on monopoly. This is 1890. A guy who was a big supporter they were rapidly expanding. In fairness, just who bore or lift, you do need to have a monopoly. What good is it if you only have three lifts . The point is to have lots of them. They were providing mobility as a service. What killed them in terms of familiar,they sound they expanded rapidly. And the stock price went. Talk about what the automobile is. We can talk about what is the , it wastomobile complicated. Also in the museums collection, that was the dirty eight motor wagons. They won races and were very durable. A good car. Those are not the leading costs. Between 1905, 2000 of those were sold. It was a valuable machine. Quietelerated easily, was , and was a popular car. Is those were not the first cars after the attention of the people who could afford cars. The people who could afford cars, the rothschilds, the ,anderbilts, the top 10 of 1 they intermarried with europeans and they would cruise back and europe. E should notice, its got lights. A little gaslamp. That is a real car. They were producing them, they were selling them. This is not just a little tricycle. The french eat this up. They dont eat it up in the sense of transportation. Young men inherited wealth. This is maybe one of the most significant vehicles. Notice that these vehicles have the motor located under the seat. Vehicle has a motor out here. Seems simple enough. , this motor gets bigger is why engines are out in front. Once they are out in front they get bigger and bigger and bigger. This creates the modern architecture of the modern mobile modern automobile. Werewere powerful, they fast, and they were fun. More luxury. Le we will make up lost ground and then we will lead the world about all other things. This is from the same article. Fortunately none of these cars in america have adopted that. Theyve got steering wheels. With thelot to do ackerman steering system. Major advance, engineering advance. A lot of things about the automobile i could talk about, why it comes in. It has to do with demographics and the rising immigration. Not the good americans from americans little i say that in the context of how the nativeborn considered them. There is an effort to get out of the city. More congested, industrialization is happening. The automobile is going to let you do it. Partly before the automobile would be the electrification of the streetcar. 1850s, the city was basically as big as you could walk across. In half an hour you can walk a radius. With the electric streetcar that isins to expand, the idea the automobile will focus on that. The id is one of the many elements the idea im going to focus on is one of the many elements, the bicycle. In a lot of ways the bicycle established the car culture. You cant even begin to imagine bike races got huge crowds. Bicycle advertising. Basically playing cards. Just to show you a couple of examples, this is a very sociable bicycle. You cant see well here, but i dont even think she has a wheel under there. Think like a sidecar its kind of balanced. Not like anybody who has written this. This is a guy named major taylor, a new book out. Number one racer in the country. At a time when africanamericans racing against white wasnt typically done. The fact you made a career in the business is incredible. Heres what i want to touch on quickly. There are a lot of these women biking clubs and they were part of the suffragettes. Things you will notice is they are wearing long skirts. Even with your handcuffs. Im always stuffing it into my sock. Office andt to the finally at lunch someone points it out. Lets see if we can tell you what they do. Women start wearing lou mers. You can see their ankles. They should cover that up. This is a pretty big deal. People have moral panics about these kinds of things. Panic aboutmoral women being on bicycles. Themselves. Give you the context back in the day, now you get baseball cards cigarette packs, cigar packs, lets look at what this one has. You can see a lady on a bicycle. This lady has a bicycle. Look at all the showing. What are they saying . What is next . They are going to start smoking cigars. It really is this moral panic. Let me show you about the bicycle culture and connected to the car culture. Its the sex appeal, but its also about empowerment. Danger and speed. These are called high wielders. Wheel, the faster you go. By the time you up it is five feet in the air. They refer to them as scorchers, speeders racing through town. 1901, speed and danger. The idea that henry ford, who is a failed businessman at this with beat the best racer the biggest car company in the country was a huge deal. People went wild. One man threw his hat up in the air, when it came down he stomped on it. He hit his wife on the head to keep her from flying off the handle. Anyway, another cyclist. So liberty cyclist, much like major taylor. Henry ford got him to do his next racer. 990 9, 1902. He he sitting in what amounts to a drawing room scene. He steering with a flat bar with two handles on it. The engine is huge. Five gallons of air with every stroke. Horsepower, did 90 miles per hour. Down at the bottom, it is drenched in oil. The oil just sprayed everywhere. Here is the beauty of it, he had no idea how to drive. They just said you are a bike racer. He didnt know. Thats all very exciting. People rushed out these races. Crowds were so thick the police had to come and everything. People loved it. What people didnt love is when the rich folk started tearing through cities. Even dodging the road. Called the crusade of , the charge of the 400. Thats the joke there. William k vanderbilt the second was the most notorious one of these guys. The ones who really got into it where young men of inherited wealth. The fathers made a fortune. Vanderbilt told a reporter, he certainlth is a ambition as cocaine is to morality. He had nothing to excite him in the automobile shows up and off he goes. There is also an interesting oped. Anderbilt wanted to build raceway on long island. No other cars. Saidimes editorialized and they dont want that. Was how close they could get to pedestrians without killing them. To how we deal with this problem. We begin to try to control the chaos of traffic. Order from chaos, we need to bring order from chaos. Show you the pretty remarkable scene. Four days before the San Francisco earthquake, a company that did these films on the front of her streetcar. You will see the people turn and look at them. Is lookant you to do through the traffic. There is no sound in the original. Very sympathetic and thoughtful job of adding a. Sense oft, i hope, a the way that sounds. That will be our stop. You see a bunch of cars in there. They are the same cars. Im pretty sure you hire these cars. It does give you a sense of what is happening. Crazier, they weave in and out. Its chaos. It does work. It is a functional space. On lots of streets, kids playing. The street is a multifunctional space. In, itautomobile comes develops the concern about traffic crashes. Im going to jump ahead for just a second. 1935 was a pivotal year. One was a spike in automobile traffic death. It just keeps going up in the middle of the depression. Out in article came 1935. Slow down, drive carefully. Nobody had done a full on blood and gore story. He visits actual accidents right up until this happened. He talks about bones sticking out. Can onlyf blood you see a hole where a mouse was mouth was. Gruesome stuff. It does have an impact. It does not make people drive safer. Gallup polls. They mean the bad drivers. The aaa comes out with a drivers ed pamphlet in 1936. The Insurance Industry comes out with a textbook. Actually a psycho technologist. 1930s. The in a period where science is on the ascendant. The expectation is that science can solve problems. Im going to talk about fixing the driver, fixing the road and fixing the car, but mostly fixing the car that im mostly going to take fixing the car out of the picture. Ralph nader wasnt just a president ial candidate, he wrote the face all of the things in an automotive cocoon. Ating sudden death least in the rhetoric of driver safety. We have better breaks. A safer roof that wont crush. American Auto Companies lead safety glass, seatbelts, airbags, at every turn. It really was on the 1930s. Particularly studebaker, kyle named paul austin a guy named paul austin. Than the 1960nt solution. What are we going to do . This is 1903 on the right. If this is the first set of traffic rules set up in new york city. He recalled getting caught in a blockade. This blockade at the time, its already like 12 wagons here. Cup thed the. Olice department then there are things we take for granted. The other car has the rightofway. That spread, various state and local agents come together, particularly in the 1920s, and begin to create a uniform code. Is drivingproblems from mississippi to alabama and the rules change. On the left is a traffic light. This is fascinating to me. You come to an intersection, there is a traffic light. Running a red light is one of the most Dangerous Things that happens. Red light cameras are supposed to stop. Which we see going in, im talking about a modern noticedrotary, have you hes showing up . There are going to be more of them. You are going to be safer. The traffic light is the solution. Lets make sure people behave. If people dont behave we have a problem. Police are out there surveilling, keeping an eye on everything. You may recognize if you have called kids whats it the hate you give. It centers around the shooting of a young black man, unarmed black man by a police man. Ofthe right is the shooting castile. E was unarmed was it justifiable . Was it not . Africanamerican men are not necessarily shot more than other people then were whole or than people who were pulled over, they are just pulled over more. They are searched way more. Police often and badly. The reality is we are breaking the rules all the time. You always signal. Never roll through a stop si