The changing face of car cabins

Posted 31 July, 2019 Samuel Smith

Car cabins have always been at the forefront of innovation, technology and design.   From air con and power windows to audio-visual advancements, we celebrate some of the most important advancements in car cabins over the last century.  

The basics

Back in the automotive dawn age, evolution was rapid. Believe it or not, there was once a time when cars didn’t have steering wheels. Instead, they were controlled by a tiller or lever, similar to those used in watercraft. The first steering wheel was fitted to an 1894 Panhard et Levassor by professional driver – Alfred Vacheron as he prepared to take part in the Paris–Rouen race.   Speedometers came along a little later, in 1901 Oldsmobiles, while fuel gauges first hit production in 1914 Studebakers. We can thank American inventor Mary Anderson for the first operational windscreen wiper, patented in 1903. Seatbelts were first offered as standard equipment in the 1958 Saab GT 750.  

Power windows

Remember when power windows were still something to brag about? Now imagine the smug satisfaction you’d get from hitting that switch in 1940. The first power windows were introduced in the 1940 Packard 180 and were driven by a hydro-electric lift system.  

Air conditioning

Packard were also the first manufacturer to offer air conditioning in their cars. Introduced in 1940, the units were manufactured externally and called the Bishop and Babcock Weather Conditioner. The price – $274 USD (almost $5000 USD in 2019) – was abysmally expensive for most depression/pre-war Americans.  

Seating

Power seats (which many cars manufactured in 2019 still don’t have) first slid into production in a range of 1948 Cadillacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles. Power steering debuted in the 1950 Chrysler Imperial, as did cruise control, in the 1956 model. The world’s first heated car seats appeared in the 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood and consisted of fibreglass pads, interwoven with ‘electric conductive carbon yarn’ (to quote the Fleetwood’s sales brochure). Seat temperature could be set from 30 to 38 degrees Celsius, with the system turning on automatically whenever the car was started in the cold.  

Airbags

The first commercially available car with passenger airbags was the 1973 Oldsmobile Tornado. The idea, however, had already been around for decades. In 1964, a Japanese auto engineer named Yasuzaburou Kobori invented an airbag system very similar to what’s used in modern cars today. It was awarded patents in 14 countries, but tragically Kobori passed away before it was put into widespread production.