Groundbreakers: the cars that did it first – 2019 edition

The car as we know it today is the result of thousands of innovations over the years.

Since Autocar has been around since 1895, we’ve covered nearly all of them in detail across our history. But in nearly every case, a particular innovation that moved the automotive world on a step arrived in one particular production car for the first time.

In this latest edition of our long-running series, we’ll tell you about the first car to have a V8, to have reversing lights, air conditioning, and even that tiny but oh-so-useful arrow which reminds you which side your fuel filler cap is on. For this update we’ve dug up a whole bunch of new and interesting innovations to savour and dropped a few of the less notable.

As usual, we tell the story in chronological order and we’ve rated all of them with a groundbreaker score out of 10 – this rates the long-term impact of the technology: the higher the number, the greater the impact. It’s not a rating of the car itself, or how successful it was; indeed, some of these cars proved too ahead of their time. But they all started something, and usually something that made driving better. We salute them all.

It’s a fascinating journey, so climb aboard:

FIRST CAR: Benz Patent-Motorwagen (1886)

We can’t help but start here in 1886, when Karl Benz (1844-1929) gave us what is generally acknowledged as the world’s first motor car. Powered by a single-cylinder 954cc engine, it managed around 10mph.

He was helped by his wife Bertha (1849-1944, pictured); when she took it on the the world’s first long car journey in 1888, she fitted leather onto the brakes and thus invented the brakepad in the process.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 11

MASS-PRODUCED CAR, SPEEDOMETER: Curved Dash Oldsmobile (1901)

Time to explode a myth: the Ford Model T was not the world's first mass-produced car. It was the world's first mass-produced car to sell in really big numbers, but it was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile that was the first car to be built using mass-production techniques.

However, just 19,000 or so examples were made between 1901 and 1907, whereas more than 16.5 million Model Ts were made between 1908 and 1927. This Olds was also the first production car to get a speedometer.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – the reason even quite poorly-off people can afford a car today is because mass production makes them much cheaper to make and thus to buy. Speedometers are quite useful too.

ELECTRIC STARTING: Cadillac (1912)

American engineer Clyde Coleman patented the electric starter in 1903. He then sold his patent to Delco, later purchased by General Motors (GM), which gave its Cadillac division the distinction of being the first car maker to sell a car with an electric starter, with its 1912 Touring Edition.

The feature was nothing less than revolutionary, quickly spreading across the automotive industry during the 1910s. Even Ford’s bargain-priced Model T came with a starter motor after 1919. In 1916, Cadillac went still further with its Type 53 – it was the first production car to use a key to start the engine.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – cranking your car to start it today would be seriously tiresome, and the key was extremely useful too. 

ALL-STEEL BODYSHELL: Dodge (1913)

Philadelphia businessman Edward Budd set up a company in 1912 to fabricate steel components and within a year he'd got a contract from Dodge to build 70,000 bodyshells.

At the time, many cars incorporated wood in their construction and outer panels were often made of fabric, but an all-steel bodyshell was strong and rigid yet still relatively light. Before long Budd would also be making steel panels and/or bodyshells for Cadillac, Chrysler, Mercedes, Citroën and Ford, among others.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – crashing a steel car is no fun but imagine crashing in a wooden one? And steel makes cars much easier to shape and bond.

V8 ENGINE: Cadillac (1914)

Although Rolls-Royce was theoretically the first car maker to offer a vehicle with a V8 engine, only three examples of its 3.5-litre model were built.

At this stage all engines were hand-cranked to get them started and eight cylinders meant a lot of effort, so Cadillac's introduction of the electric starter in 1912 allowed it to introduce a truly mass-produced V8 car in 1914. In just one year the company sold 13,000 examples of its 5.4-litre V8 model.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – truth be told, the car world could survive without V8s in it today - but we for one wouldn’t like it much.

V12 ENGINE: Packard Twin-Six (1915)

At a time when few car makers were using powerplants with more than four cylinders it seems incredible that US car maker Packard was introducing a V12 engine. Displacing 424-cubic-inches (6945cc), the Packard's incredibly smooth and tractable powerplant was rated at just 88 horsepower which was sent to the rear wheels via a three-speed manual gearbox.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – in a world dominated today by downsized turbocharged engines, few things can beat the smooth, rare, majesty of a modern V12. Well done Packard, and rest in peace.

SERVO/BOOSTER-ASSISTED BRAKES: Leyland Eight (1920)

John Parry-Thomas, who would go on to build the land speed record car Babs (in which he would be killed on Pendine Sands in Wales) came up with the design for a working brake servo. This vacuum-operated contraption took the effort out of braking and it was first fitted to the heavy and luxurious Leyland Eight, of which just a handful were built in the 1920s thanks to an astronomical price tag.

By the end of that decade, brake servos were beginning to be more widely adopted, having already become popular in commercial vehicles.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – without this technology, only the truly strong would be able to quickly stop a car, which would have serious implications for road safety, as well as making driving profoundly tiring.

SUPERCHARGER: Mercedes (1921)

Superchargers force air into the engine through a turbine that's attached to the crankshaft. A key advantage is that they can deliver boost even at low engine speeds. Mercedes was first to use the technology as far back as the early 1920s in its 6/25/40 hp and 10/40/65 hp (pictured) models. They were termed ‘Kompressor’ models, a name the company used until recently.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – less important today than turbochargers, superchargers have still given us some brilliant cars which in the modern era includes cars like the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, 2006 Jaguar XKR, and 2003 Mercedes SL55 AMG.

REVERSING/BACK-UP LIGHT: Wills Sainte Claire (1922)

Childe Wills (1878-1940) was an early associate and employee of Henry Ford. He set up on his own after the First World War, but got fed up of reversing into things at night, so his Wills Sainte Claire company decided to do something about it. To that end he incorporated a reversing light into the nearside of his A-68 Roadster of 1922, which came on when reverse gear was selected.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – not very glamorous, but still extremely useful.

ALLOY WHEELS: Bugatti Type 35 (1924)

Aluminium is lighter than steel, so the fitment of alloy wheels helps to cut overall mass as well as unsprung weight. The latter helps to improve ride quality as well as handling, which is why Bugatti came up with the world's first alloy wheels for the tour de force that was its Type 35.

Alloy wheels wouldn't become popular as factory-fit equipment until a long time after the Type 35 arrived; by the 1960s independent wheel makers were offering magnesium alloy wheels to cut weight even further.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – quite apart from the weight thing, they usually make cars look a load better.

ELECTRIC WINDSCREEN WIPERS: Cadillac (1927)

Hand-cranked and vacuum-operated windscreen wipers were introduced in the early 1900s. In 1926 Germany's Bosch patented a wiper mechanism powered by electricity and Cadillac offered it from the following year, but it was unreliable so it was soon axed.

By 1939 Chrysler had embraced electric windscreen wipers, offering them on several of its models.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – without this invention, driving in the wet today would be nearly impossible.

LAMINATED GLASS: Ford Model A (1927)

Henry Ford was ruthless about controlling costs, so it seems surprising that he was also the first to use pricey laminated glass. However, Ford was also in the perfect position to fit this safety tech thanks to his economies of scale.

From the start of production the Ford Model A featured a laminated glass windscreen, which Henry Ford had insisted should be fitted after seeing the carnage caused by somebody - yes a real person - being thrown through the windscreen of a car during crash testing. Laminated glass is treated so that it doesn’t shatter into dangously sharp little pieces during, for example, a car crash.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – countless millions have had their lives either saved or saved from serious facial injury because of it.

CAR RADIO: Cadillac La Salle (1929)

Debate rages over which was the first car to feature a factory-fit radio. The 1929 Cadillac (and its LaSalle offshoot) was available with a dealer-fitted Delco-Remy unit, but it seems British firm Crossley was the first car to feature a factory-fitted AM radio, in 1933.

Radios were a standard feature by the end of the '30s in America. The development of the transistor after the Second World War enabled radios to be much smaller and more reliable, and Chrysler became the first company to fit them, doing so in late 1955 for 1956 model year cars. Higher sound quality FM receivers were progressively rolled out from the 1950s onward.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – a change for the better.

TWIN-SPARK IGNITION: Mercedes 770 (1930)

Alfa Romeo introduced twin-spark ignition on its 1914 Grand Prix cars, but it would be another 15 years before such tech was available on a road car. It was the Mercedes 770 that offered it first; Alfa Romeo wouldn't sell a road-going car with twin-spark ignition until the 1960s.

A twin-spark engine has a pair of spark plugs for each cylinder, instead of the more usual one, so that the petrol/air mixture is burned more thoroughly and more cleanly, in a bid to improve efficiency and increase power.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – it helped make engines better.

METALLIC PAINT: Chevrolet (1932)

There's much debate about when metallic paint was introduced. By the end of the 1930s many US brands offered it. Cadillac listed it from 1933 and Hupmobile from 1934, but it seems they were both pipped to the post by Chevrolet, which allowed its cars to be finished in metallic paint from as early as 1932.

Paint mixed in with roughly 2% powdered metal, it makes cars looks better than those with solid colours, and tends to resist fading for longer. All of this tends to help your car retain its value better.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – if you have it on your car, be pleased.

HEATER: Nash (1933)

Crude heaters were available as early as the early 1920s, although they were always aftermarket items rather than factory-fit. It wasn’t until 1933 that a relatively compact and efficient factory-fitted heater was available, when Nash introduced its new range.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a major improvement to vehicle comfort.

DOUBLE-WISHBONE SUSPENSION: Citroën (1934)

The preferred suspension layout for racing and sports car makers for decades, double-wishbone independent suspension allows superb control of the road wheels, under even the most punishing driving conditions.

Citroën adopted double-wishbone suspension on its Traction Avant (pictured) and Rosalie in 1934. Bizarrely, while the Traction Avant was a new model in 1934, the Rosalie was at the end of its lifespan.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a major improvement to car handling.

OVERDRIVE: Chrysler Airflow (1934)

Overdrive maintains long distance cruising at lower engine-revs, aiding fuel economy, and was introduced several years before the Second World War on the innovative,  influential but ill-fated Airflow.

Developed with the help of Orville Wright (yes, that one), the Airflow’s aircraft-inspired design and overdrive were among the early efforts to focus on fuel economy. Ahead of its time, the Airflow was axed in 1937, after just three years on sale, but its influence was enormous.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the start of the journey of greater fuel efficiency.

POP-UP HEADLIGHTS: Cord 810 (1935)

When Cord unveiled its 810 at the 1935 New York Auto Show, complete with pop-up headlights, it caused a sensation. Nobody had ever created anything like it but it would be another 30 years before the technology would become more widely adopted.

By the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s pop-up headlights had become mainstream, but by 2004 they'd been banned worldwide, for safety reasons.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 2 – but we still love ‘em.

WINDSCREEN WASHERS: Triumph (1935)

The first cars to feature windscreen washers as standard were the 1935 Triumph Gloria and Vitesse. It was a vacuum-operated system rather than electric, and only closed versions of the car got such technology – presumably those who bought an open-topped car were expected to just stick their head over the top of the windscreen to see the way ahead.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – very handy.

DIESEL ENGINE: Mercedes-Benz 260D (1936)

Rudolf Diesel developed the engine that bears his name in the 1890s, and it was initially used in ships and submarines, and the first diesel truck appeared in 1908. Making the engine smaller and lighter proved a challenge, but car companies worked on the problem after the First World War.

Mercedes launched the first proper diesel-powered production car with the 260D; its output of 45bhp gave the car a respectable 59mph top speed… eventually.

ROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – it’s seen as less important now that concerns over its impact on air quality are killing it off, at least as far as cars are concerned. But the food you eat today was almost certainly delivered in a diesel-powered truck, and that will continue for a while yet.

AUTOMATIC GEARBOX: Oldsmobile (1939)

The Oldsmobile Hydra-Matic of 1939 was enormously important. While using a manual gearbox today isn’t too much work, that wasn’t the case in the 1930s when it was something of a skillful chore.

The arrival of a four-speed automatic gearbox was a major change, and the automatic would go on to become the dominant gearbox type after the Second World War in America, especially.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – A very notable groundbreaker indeed from General Motors.

FLASHING INDICATORS: Buick (1939)

For the first few decades of the car's life, drivers were expected to signal their intentions by sticking an arm out of the window and indicating if they were turning left or right, or slowing down. Before the Second World War trafficators became more popular; these were orange-illuminated arms that popped out from the side of the car and some car makers stuck with these until the early 1960s.

But years before this, in 1939, Buick fitted flashing red lights to the back of its cars to act as indicators; within a year, Cadillac, Hudson and LaSalle had followed suit.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a big plus for road safety, especially at night.

POWER CONVERTIBLE ROOF: Plymouth (1939)

Plymouth was the only division of Chrysler to offer open-topped cars in 1939, and while rivals were also selling convertibles, none had one on its books with a power-operated roof. The car pictured is a 1939 Plymouth Deluxe convertible, which was powered by a 201ci (3292cc) six-cylinder engine.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a wonderful new luxury.

POWER WINDOWS: Packard Custom Super Eight One-Eighty (1940)

The Packard Super Eight One-Eighty became the first series-produced car equipped with power windows when it made its debut. Called Automatic Window Control, it was hydraulically operated. The model just beat Lincoln, whose 1941 Continental included vacuum-operated power windows.

The Packard system used brake fluid to move the windows up and down. It was slow and prone to damaging leaks when not properly maintained. A huge and very primitive air conditioning system also made its debut as an option on this truly groundbreaking car.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – important, but not the end of the tale as you’ll see…

DISC BRAKES: Chrysler Crown Imperial (1948)

It would be another decade before most car makers would discover disc brakes but as early as 1948 the Chrysler Crown Imperial featured them, on all four wheels.

Even today some economy cars still feature disc brakes only at the front. Disc brakes have a number of advantages over drum brakes; chiefly, they have more stopping power.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a vital improvement.

TAIL FINS: Cadillac (1948)

Think tail fin and the 1959 Cadillac immediately springs to mind, but it was more than a decade before that the first car with tail fins was introduced, on the 1948 Cadillac.

Dreamed up by Cadillac designer Franklin Hershey (1907-1997), his inspiration came from seeing a Lockheed P-38 fighter plane. From the introduction of the 1948 Cadillac the fins got bigger and bigger, until they faded away in the mid-1960s.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 2 – a symbol of American post-WW2 confidence, the fins went away when the confidence did.

SAFETY CELL: Saab 92 (1949)

For years Saab and Volvo competed with each other in building the world's safest cars; this is where it started when Saab introduced the world's first safety cell in its 92, which was also Saab’s first ever model.

This development was of profound importance; it established a very strong structural zone around the passenger space, protecting them from crash impacts; the rest of the car is designed to absorb those impacts, in effect by sacrificing itself, not the occupants. PICTURE: Saab Ursaab, the prototype vehicle for the 92

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – a life saver.

MACPHERSON STRUT SUSPENSION: Ford Consul (1950)

Earle MacPherson (1891-1960) was recruited by Chevrolet as its chief engineer in 1945, to develop an affordable small car in the wake of World War Two. For that project MacPherson came up with a new type of cheap-yet-effective independent suspension, but when Chevrolet canned its project MacPherson jumped to Ford.

There, his suspension design was embraced and by 1950 it was being used on Ford's new family car in Britain, the Consul. Since then hundreds of millions of cars with MacPherson strut suspension have been built.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – the strut helped give even modest cars decent handling.

ELECTRIC WINDOWS: Chrysler Imperial (1951)

As already mentioned, the first power-assisted windows were fitted to a 1940 Packard, but a hydraulic set-up was used. It wouldn’t be until 1951 that purely electric windows were fitted to a car; the Chrysler Imperial was the first to feature them.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – very hard to buy a car today without them.

POWER STEERING: Chrysler Imperial (1951)

Until Chrysler's Imperial lineup started to offer power assisted steering (PAS) on its 1951 models, drivers just had to accept that driving heavy cars in town was a pain. PAS made a profound impact; prior to that, one’s physical strength, or lack of it, was a key consideration when buying a car.

Imperial’s system was called Hydraguide, but it didn’t have a monopoly for long; GM quickly followed suit, and by 1956 25% of all cars on US roads had the feature; today the figure is virtually 100%.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 - today, even the largest cars can be driven by anyone.

AUTOMATIC HIGH BEAM: Oldsmobile (1952)

This technology is fairly rare today, but Oldsmobile introduced headlights that dim themselves as far back as 1952. It was called Autronic Eye, and consisted of a light-detecting switch installed in a housing mounted on the driver’s side of the dash. It automatically dimmed the headlights when it sensed light from oncoming cars; the option cost around $470 in today's money.

However many people complained the system was unreliable and too sensitive to other light sources like billboards. However GM fine-tuned it and offered it on more cars, including several Cadillacs and Buicks. Today, much more sophisticated systems are reasonably common; the best of them adjust headlights to avoid blinding oncoming cars while at the same time optimising illumination as far as possible.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – useful, but even today’s systems don’t work 100% reliably.

AIR CONDITIONING: Nash Ambassador (1953)

As mentioned, Packard offered air conditioning on its cars in 1940-42, but the system was very costly and grossly inefficient; it also took up the entire boot space. Nash overcame such hurdles aided by being sister company to the refrigerator manufacturer Kelvinator.

Using that firm's know-how Nash was first to offer an affordable and practical fully integrated heating, ventilation and air conditioning system from the 1954 model year, in its Ambassador. The rest of the industry swiftly followed suit with this very important advance.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 – one we can all be grateful for.

SELF-LEVELLING HEADLIGHTS: Panhard Dyna Z (1954)

Cibié developed self-levelling headlight technology in 1954, and almost immediately French car maker Panhard snapped it up for its Dyna Z family saloon.

The system linked the car's suspension with its headlights so that if the car was heavily loaded, leading to a tail-heavy stance, the headlight aim would automatically dip.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a useful contribution to both safety and convenience.

POWER (CENTRAL) LOCKING: Packard (1955)

The introduction of power locking isn’t very well documented, but it seems that Packard was there first, introducing a power door lock system on its 1956 range. Today, they are present on virtually every car on sale.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – very useful.

CRUISE CONTROL: Imperial (1957)

American roads have long been the perfect environment for cruise control, but until Chrysler’s Imperial brand introduced the feature on its 1957 models, you had to control the throttle yourself.

Cruise control transformed long-distance driving for the better, so long as the traffic wasn’t heavy; we had to wait a few decades for a solution to that problem. PICTURE: Imperial LeBaron

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – a boon to the automotive world.

REAR WINDOW WIPER: Lancia Flaminia (1957)

Buick offered a vacuum-operated rear window wiper on some of its saloons and coupés as early as 1941, but it wasn't until 1957 that an electrically operated system was fitted as standard. That was to the Lancia Flaminia saloon launched in 1957 which got two chrome wipers for its back window, just like those up front.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a safety boost.

AIR SUSPENSION: Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (1957)

A feature that even now is fitted to only the most luxurious of cars, Cadillac introduced air suspension on its top-of-the-line models for the 1957 model year, giving a true magic carpet ride. It also improved body control and handling. As with many pioneers, this particular journey wasn’t straightforward and the system initially proved unreliable.

GM threw everything at this flagship car; another first notched up by the car were memory power seats. It cost $13,074 – twice the price of a standard Eldorado, and the equivalent of $121,000 today – and was even pricier than equivalent Rolls-Royces. 704 were built in 1957-1958.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a step up in comfort for luxury cars.

ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION: Chrysler 300D, 1958

Electronic fuel injection technology got off to a rough start. American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased an early system named Electrojector from Bendix with the intention of offering it as an option on the 1957 Rambler Rebel. It proved unreliable in testing and wasn’t sold to the public.

In 1958, Chrysler made a small number of 300Ds equipped with Bendix’s system, and sister brands Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge also offered the system on some of their cars. Electrojector rarely worked as intended, forcing the firm to issue a recall campaign in late summer 1958 to retrofit Electrojector-equipped cars with carburetors.

Bendix’s patents were later sold to Bosch, which perfected the technology to great success with its long-running Jetronic system; it was sold to car makers practically everywhere.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 - it made engines much more reliable and refined.

GLASSFIBRE MONOCOQUE – Lotus Elite (1958)

Admittedly the glassfibre monocoque was something of an engineering dead end because it was so specialist, but the idea of a road car that didn't need a chassis for its strength was revolutionary when the Lotus Elite arrived in 1958.

A steel subframe was bonded into the Elite's structure to carry the engine and front suspension, while a steel windscreen hoop aided crash protection. But otherwise the Elite's construction was pure plastic, which meant it was light and easy to mould into a brilliantly aerodynamic shape.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a revolution, of sorts.

THREE-POINT SEATBELT: Volvo Amazon (1959)

Volvo is renowned for its work in making cars safer and the introduction of the three-point seat belt in 1959 has arguably saved more lives than any other safety feature. To the company’s eternal credit, it allowed the technology to be used by other carmakers at no patent cost.

Seatbelts do not simply stop you flying through the windscreen in a sudden deceleration. While this is important, the vital thing is that they’re part of a wider system: they keep occupants in their allotted position in the interior of a car, inside the safety cell, even in a situation involving high impact speeds.

As such seatbelts allows the safety cell to do its job of protecting you. If you are not located where the car thinks you should be in a critical situation, and instead are flying around the cabin or indeed thrown out of the car entirely, all bets are off. In the UK, 1-in-4 people who died in a car accident in 2017 were not wearing a seatbelt. Please buckle up.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – the saviour of millions.

AUTO-DIMMING REAR-VIEW MIRROR: Chrysler 300E (1959)

Chrysler went to surprising lengths to design the first auto-dimming rear-view mirror. Called Mirror-Matic, it relied on a photocell that measured the intensity of the light it received through the car’s rear window.

The mirror automatically pivoted by a few degrees when the intensity of the light reached a certain level. The system sourced power from the car’s electrical system and the driver could use a switch to select one of three modes called city, highway and off, respectively.

The Mirror-Matic option cost $186 in today’s money on the 1959 300E (pictured). Sister brands Dodge, DeSoto, Plymouth and Imperial also offered it. Today, the feature is very common.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – subtle, but important.

TARGA ROOF: Triumph TR4 (1961)

Although it was Porsche that came up with the targa name, it was Triumph that came up with the first car to use such a design. The TR4 featured a Surrey top, which consisted of a fixed rear window and two removable roof panels. While the Triumph TR4 arrived in 1961, it would be another four years befoe Porsche came up with the 911 Targa.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – we love a targa.

TIMING BELT: Glas 1004 (1962)

In a bid to build an engine that was lighter, cheaper and quieter than the normal chain-driven powerplants, in 1962 Germany's Glas introduced an engine with a cam belt (otherwise known as a timing belt) on its 1004.

Within a couple of years Fiat had followed suit with its twin-cam 124, then in 1966 Vauxhall joined the party with its slant-four engine, as seen in the Victor FD.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – every small change helps.

TURBOCHARGED ENGINE: Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire (1962)

The Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire was the world's first production turbocharged car. With a Garrett turbo unit added to a 3500cc V8, it boosted engine power by 16% to 215bhp, allowed this large car to perform 0-60mph in 9.2sec, a full five seconds faster than the non-turbo version, and. A turbo was also fitted to the Chevrolet Corvair’s six-cylinder engine later the same year.

However, the engine proved unreliable, and ultimately only 3765 Jetfires were sold in the two years it was on sale. The compact alloy V8’s design and tooling were later sold to Britain’s Rover and used in a wide range of its cars including the original Range Rover – though never in turbocharged form.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 - turbos are now extremely common, allowing decent power and torque even from very small engines.

CLIMATE CONTROL: Cadillac Sedan de Ville (1964)

After the Nash breakthrough in 1954, air conditioning rapidly became a must-have item for cars in America, and then the battle was on to improve it.

GM got there first, fitting automatic ‘comfort control’ air conditioning on the 1964 Cadillac Sedan de Ville among certain other models – the driver set the desired temperature, and it did the rest, in theory at least.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – while not as huge an advance as air-con itself we still welcome this one.

HEATED SEATS: Cadillac Fleetwood (1965)

GM employee Robert Ballard patented the heated seat in 1951, but it was 14 years before the feature made its way to a production model. In 1965, the 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood became the first car to offer heated seats; the option cost $467 in 2019 money.

Today in cold climates on cold mornings we can all be grateful for this feature. Fancy a massage too? Then you had to wait until 2000, when they first appeared in a Cadillac DeVille, as well as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class at more or less the same time.

In 2001, Saab offered ventilated seats on its original 9-5; it relied on a pair of flat fans integrated in the seat to extract the warm air trapped between the passenger’s body and the upholstery.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – we’re all grateful for this one every winter.

ANTI-LOCK BRAKES: Jensen FF, Mercedes S-Class (1968, 1978)

Jensen introduced the mechanical Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock braking system (ABS) on its four-wheel-drive Interceptor derivative, the FF (pictured). It was very expensive, and the car was a commercial failure.

The first modern four-channel fully electronic ABS arrived in 1978 when Mercedes offered it as an option on its range-topping S-Class W116. This more efficient and quicker-reacting technology rapidly replaced mechanical ABS. ABS has been mandatory on all new cars sold in the European Union since 2004; it became obligatory in the US on cars sold after September 1st 2013.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – immensely important.

INTERMITTENT WINDSCREEN WIPERS: Mercury (1968)

Although patents for intermittent windscreen wipers existed as far back as the 1920s, it wasn't until the advent of solid state electronics in the 1960s that they became a production reality. The engineer and academic Robert Kearns (1927-2005) developed a system and offered it to Ford. Ford rejected it, but installed a similar design on 1969 Mercurys.

Kearns spent much of the rest of his life in litigation with Ford and other companies, eventually winning around $30 million in compensation, a tale recounted in the 2009 Universal Studios movie Flash of Genius; it's well worth a watch.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – quietly useful.

AUTOMATIC WINDSCREEN WIPERS: Citroën SM (1970)

Just a year after intermittent wipers became a reality, Citroën introduced rain-sensitive wipers, although in reality it was an automatic variable-intermittent set-up. The system didn't work by sensing rain on the screen; instead it worked by detecting how much friction there was when the wipers were left on intermittent. High friction meant a dry screen, low friction meant wet glass which reduced the time between sweeps.

Later, in 1995 General Motors launched a fully electronic set-up on its 1996 Cadillac STS, Eldorado and DeVille. Called Rainsense, the system was available on Buicks just a few months after Cadillac got the technology, and its system measured the amount of water gathering on the screen.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a little bit of luxury.

HIGH LEVEL BRAKE LIGHTS: Oldsmobile Toronado (1971)

The first rear brake lights in the 1920s had to be operated manually, which was nearly useless. Automatic ones followed later. Rear-end impacts in traffic are one of the most common types of road accident and at speed, the result can be serious. Research suggested that a brake/stop light nearer the line-of-sight of a following driver could help reduce crashes and save lives.

Supplemental brake lights were offered as an option on the 1968 Ford Thunderbird, which situated lights at the sides of the rear window. But the fitment of strip stop lights on the trunk of the 1971 Oldsmobile Toronado (circled in image) gets the title here as they clearly signalled where this important technology was going. High-level lights became mandatory on all new cars sold in the US from 1985 and in the European Union from 1998. PICTURE: 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 - another technology that might have just saved your life, and you never knew it.

ELECTRONIC TRACTION CONTROL: Buick Riviera (1971)

Buick introduced a primitive version of today’s traction control systems on the 1971 Riviera. Named MaxTrac, it used a hub-mounted sensor to measure the speed of the left front wheel and a transmission-mounted sensor to monitor the speed of the rear wheels. The system relied on a device Buick called a ‘miniature transistorized computer’ to compare the two values and reduce the engine’s output when it detected the rear wheels were spinning.

The driver could turn the system on or off with a switch on the dashboard. Several other Buick models received MaxTrac for the 1972 and 1973 model years.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a vital contribution to safety.

REAR SPOILER: Porsche 911 Carrera RS (1973)

When the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 arrived in 1973 it brought with it a fabulously charismatic duck-tail rear spoiler, which incidentally was the world’s first proper rear spoiler on a production road car.

However, an array of cars in the 1960s featured small lip spoilers, such as the Aston Martin DB6 of 1965, the Lamborghini Miura of 1966 and the Datsun 240Z of 1969.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – we love them, and they’re not just for looks.

FAST HATCHBACK: Simca 1100Ti (1973)

We've included this one simply to explode a myth – that the Volkswagen Golf GTi was the first fast hatchback. If the Mini Cooper had been a hatchback, or the BMC 1300 (specifically in 1300GT form), the Brits could have claimed the first hot hatch.

But it was actually the French, in the form of the Simca 1100 Ti that pipped VW to the post. With its 82bhp twin-carb 1.3-litre engine the Simca could manage 105mph along with 0-60mph in under 12 seconds, which wasn't as quick as the Golf GTi that came three years later.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – where would European car firms be without them?

CATALYTIC CONVERTERS: multiple brands (1974)

In 1974, Ford, Chrysler, GM and AMC all announced that a slew of their models would be getting catalytic converters as standard for the 1975 model year, in a bid to make America's air cleaner.

The tech would slash the amount of pollution generated but it would require investment in new fuels, and specifically the ready availability of unleaded petrol. To ensure leaded petrol wasn't used by mistake, cars equipped with a catalytic converter got a narrower filler neck, so only an unleaded nozzle would fit.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – it helped our air, and killed off lead in fuel in the process.

AIRBAGS: General Motors range (1974)

The engineer John Hetrick (1918-1999) invented the airbag in 1952 but it wouldn’t be until the 1970s that there would be widespread usage of this ‘supplementary restraint system’. GM was the first to offer the technology in its full-size Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile models of 1974. It was known as an ‘Air Cushion Restraint System’.

PICTURE: 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 9 - in 2018, America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that frontal airbags have saved the lives of 50,547 people in the US alone to date.

DIGITAL INSTRUMENTATION: Aston Martin Lagonda (1976)

LCD-based instrumentation is fast becoming the norm, although it's far from universal. However, when fitted it still invariably mimics traditional analogue gauges.

The first car to feature a digital dashboard using LED technology was the Aston Martin Lagonda of 1976, although making the electronics reliable proved such a mammoth task that production didn't really get going for another three years. The LEDs were dumped in favour of cathode ray tube-based screens in 1986, but these also proved unreliable.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the start of a trend, however shaky.

TURBODIESEL: Mercedes-Benz 300SD (1978)

Diesel powered cars are very efficient compared to ones powered by petrol, but they were very slow in comparison. Adding a turbo could help, and Mercedes did it for the first time in S-Class (W116) 300SD. With America shocked by soaring fuel prices, the model was only available in the US.

The engine was a 3.0-litre straight-five cylinder unit, and despite the turbo, power was only 111bhp, with 168lb ft of torque. A decent 28,634 examples were sold until 1980, though the engine in more powerful forms returned in the new W126 S-Class series that arrived that year; once again, it was sold in the US only, up to 1985.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – today it’s almost impossible to buy a diesel without a turbo, and you really wouldn’t want to, trust us.

TRIP COMPUTER: Cadillac Seville (1978)

The first analogue trip computer was to be found in the Saab GT750 of 1958; the 1978 Cadillac Seville introduced us to the concept of the electronic trip computer. Today, they’re so common that we hardly even notice them.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – useful, even if we don’t use them as much as we should.

CYLINDER DEACTIVATION: Cadillac (1980)

Short-lived Boston-based firm Sturtevant built the first known cylinder deactivation system in 1905 (pictured inset, below right). It invented a set-up that let the driver shut down three of the six cylinders while cruising; the technology didn’t catch on and Sturtevant shut down in 1907.

73 years later, a spike in fuel prices inspired Cadillac to bring cylinder deactivation back on stage when it bravely made the technology standard across its entire 1981 line-up. V8-6-4 - a name which indicated it could run on eight, six or four cylinders – however didn’t work properly, thwarted by primitive electronics. Many dealers quietly told owners to switch the system off and to run as a V8 permanently.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – the technology has come back into vogue now engine management computers are so much more powerful.

REMOTE LOCKING: Renault Fuego (1982)

We've got used to being able to lock and unlock our cars from afar, but the Renault Fuego was the first car to get remote central locking. The system was called Plip, in honour of its French inventor, Paul Lipschutz.

In America, the Fuego was sold by AMC dealerships, since Renault owned most of AMC at the time. It operated using a coded signal sent via a radio transmitter in the fob. AMC models got the technology shortly after.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 - nearly all cars have this today, and it’s undeniably useful.

ACTIVE FRONT SPOILER: Alfa Romeo 90 (1984)

You've probably never seen an Alfa Romeo 90 and you've probably forgotten that it ever existed. More than 56,000 were made between 1984 and 1987 and each one was fitted with an electrically adjustable chin spoiler which automatically angled itself over a set speed to direct more air into the engine bay for better cooling.

So rather than being a spoiler for aerodynamics, it was really an adjustable air duct.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – a useful step.

DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER: Mercedes 300D (1985)

California has long led the way in clean air legislation. In 1985, as production of its W123 was drawing to a close, Mercedes introduced a diesel particulate filter (DPF) on its 300D.

However, the system was offered only in California and it wasn't reliable which is why Mercedes soon gave up on it. It would be another 15 years before a reliable DPF was available, this time from Peugeot which introduced a DPF with regeneration capabilities, on its 607 2.2 HDi of 2000.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a useful contribution towards air quality.

HEATED FRONT WINDSCREEN: Ford Granada/Scorpio, Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable (1985)

Rear-window heating has been with us since the late 1960s. Ford went to work to develop one for the windscreen. It fitted an early effort to the 1974 Ford Thunderbird and the 1974 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, powered by a separate 110V alternator.

The system proved unreliable and was dropped. Ford went back to the drawing board and developed its Quickclear heated element system in the early 1980s. It was first fitted to the European Ford Granada in 1985 (pictured top) - the Taurus (pictured bottom) and Mercury Sable got it the same year in the US market.

Ford is justly proud of this technology, which can clear frost off a windscreen in under 60 seconds. Other brands’ cars now feature the technology, but Ford is still flying its flag. It’s widely fitted to its vehicles today, even those with a modest overall specification.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 - put that credit card away.

TOUCH-SCREEN DISPLAY: Buick Riviera (1985)

Many of a car's functions are today controlled through its touch-screen display. The first time a car featured such technology was in 1985, when Buick launched the new 1986 Riviera. The display controlled the car's radio, climate control and trip computer functions, using decidedly basic graphics by today's standards.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 – the start of something big.

POP-UP SPOILER: Lancia Thema 8.32 (1986)

We've got used to active aerodynamics, with pop-up spoilers now par for the course on high-performance sports cars. But it was Lancia that was the first to build a car with such tech as standard, with its fabulously bonkers Thema 8.32 (8 cylinders, 32 valves).

Powered by a V8 derived from the one seen in the Ferrari 308, the left-hand drive-only Thema 8.32 had just 212bhp – which wasn't much more than the 185bhp of the far cheaper (and more sensible) four-cylinder Thema 2.0 Turbo.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – becoming much more common.

FUEL GAUGE ARROW: Ford Escort, Mercury Tracer (1989)

In 1989 Ford introduced an arrow on the fuel gauges of its Escort (pictured) and Tracer, to show which side of the car the filler flap was on. It came about after Ford designer Jim Moylan had to refuel a car in the pouring rain and he didn't know which side of the car the filler was on. Unlike most of the innovations here, this idea cost virtually nothing to implement.

ROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – little things can make a big difference.

AUTOMATIC ROLLOVER BAR: Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (1989)

Government regulators have long worried about the fate of convertible occupants in the event of a rollover. The prospect of a total ban on them in America even led some manufacurers like Porsche to develop the ‘halfway house’ Targa-roof option on its 911.

Mercedes addressed the issue head-on when it launched its R129 SL convertible SL-Class. A bar strong enough to support the full weight of the car (together with the windscreen pillar) would lie hidden behind the seats. If sensors detected a roll-over was imminent the spring-loaded bar would shoot up in 0.3 seconds, and it would also deploy if the roof was up or the optional winter hard-top was in place.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – very clever.

HEAD-UP DISPLAY (HUD): Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (1988/90)

The advantages of reflecting important information onto a driver’s line-of-sight was learned from military aviation, where they first appeared as early as the 1940s. The first car version was developed by GM Hughes Electronics and fitted to the limited edition Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible Indy 500 Pace Car, 50 of which were offered to selected customers.

HUDs became available on the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme saloon (pictured) as a cost-option in 1990; it showed the car’s speed in a digital display. Still a fairly rare and pricey option today, it would be better if they were more common. One US study revealed that if a driver's eyes wander off the road for more than two seconds the chance of an incident doubles. Two seconds might not sound long but, at 70mph, you'll have travelled over 200 feet - about the length of 14 cars.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – one day, all cars will have this.

SATELLITE-NAVIGATION: Mazda Eunos Cosmo (1990)

The idea of an in-built navigation system has been around since the 1950s but it wasn’t until 1990, with the arrival of the Mazda Eunos Cosmo, that the tech became a satellite-guided reality, operating via the US Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.

However, the system was vague in precise location by design, as the military feared that a more accurate system would be used and abused by terrorists. However, there were workarounds available, and in any case in 2000 President Clinton signed an executive order to make GPS as accurate for civilians as it was for the military. Today the most advanced GPS can pinpoint one’s location to the nearest 30cm (12in).

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – a massive change for the better.

CARBONFIBRE MONOCOQUE: Bugatti EB110 (1991)

McLaren introduced the first carbonfibre racing car in 1981. Lighter and stronger than anything before, the MP4/1 was revolutionary and just a decade later Bugatti used the same technology with its EB110 hypercar.

As such, this was the first production road car to feature a carbonfibre monocoque; within a year McLaren used the same tech on its no-holds-barred F1.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – Race car tech hits the road.

BACKUP/REVERSING CAMERA: Toyota Soarer (1991)

Although the 1956 Buick Centurion concept featured a rear parking camera, such tech wouldn’t appear on a production car until 1991. First to get it was the Japanese market-only Toyota Soarer; a spoiler-mounted camera fed a signal to a colour screen on the dash.

Accidents are common in low-speed parking scenarios, and when they involve small, difficult-to-see children, they are extremely dangerous even at low speeds. Rear-facing cameras have been mandatory on all new cars sold in the US from May 2018 and will become compulsory in Europe in 2021.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a useful addition to your own eyes.

V10 ENGINE: Dodge Viper (1991)

Very few cars have been fitted with a V10 engine and the first of them all was the Dodge Viper that went on sale in 1991, although the first deliveries weren't until 1992. The 8.0-litre V10 engine fitted to the first cars was rated at 400bhp and 465lb ft of torque; the powerplant alone weighed 323kg (711lb).

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 2 – uniquely characterful.

XENON HEADLIGHTS: BMW 7 Series (1992)

Jointly developed by Hella and Bosch, high-intensity discharge headlights, otherwise known as xenon lights, were first fitted to the 1992 BMW 7 Series; in BMW parlance the system was called Litronic. However, only the low-beam lights were xenon; it took until 1999 and the arrival of the C215 Mercedes CL for the arrival of bi-xenon headlights, or high-intensity discharge lighting on both dipped and main beams.

Xenon bulbs last around three times longer than halogen ones, they use around 30% less energy, and illuminate more of the road ahead.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 7 – shining a light for safety.

TURN SIGNAL IN SIDE MIRRORS: Ford Bronco (1995)

The Ford Bronco got mirror-mounted turn signals for the 1996 model year, its last model year on the market. The feature was called Signal Mirrors, and it was only offered on the XLT and the Eddie Bauer models. The turn signal was integrated into the actual mirror, not into the cap. The Mercedes E-Class W210 facelift of 1998 received turn signal lights integrated into the side mirror unit fully.

Interestingly, turn signal lights on the side of a vehicle are not federally mandated in the US to this day - but as they are in most other major car markets (and not prohibited in the US) they have been uniformally adopted. The Bronco nameplate is to be revived by Ford within the next year or so.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 – data suggests higher level indicators do help safety.

ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL: Mercedes-Benz CL600 (1995)

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and similarly named systems helps reduce crashes – they can rapidly detect a loss of control and brake wheels accordingly to counter oversteer (rear-wheel skidding) and understeer (front-wheel skidding). The first car to get it was the top-of-the-range Mercedes CL600.

In 1997, Mercedes would also apply the technology to its new Mercedes A-Class – ESC cured it of the unfortunate dynamics the car could encounter in a high speed direction change, as shown in its famous failure of the Swedish ‘elk test’ that year. It has been mandatory on all new passenger cars sold in the USA from the 2012 model year onwards and in the European Union from November 2014.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 10 – It’s believed that ESC and similar systems have saved tens of thousands of lives since its introduction.

MODERN HYBRID POWERTRAIN: Toyota Prius (1997)

The idea of a hybrid is older than you think; Ferdinand Porsche dabbled in petrol-electric cars in the early 1900s, and Mercedes-Benz experimented in the early 1980s.

Though Toyota didn’t invent the hybrid, we give it credit for raising the public’s awareness of the technology and making it increasingly common in new cars. The first-generation Prius launched in Japan in 1997 with a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine backed up by a permanent-magnet electric motor. Despite its complexity, the system has proved very reliable. PICTURE: post-2000 Toyota Prius

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 - as the future of the car now appears to be electric, the Prius is where its modern-day journey begins.

ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL: Mercedes-Benz S-Class (1998)

Cruise control is superbly useful, but less so in heavy traffic. Adaptive cruise control (ACC) technology uses radar and sometimes also camera technology to automatically adjust speed while keeping at a set distance from the car in front.

The 1995 Mitsubishi Diamante blazed the ACC trail, but didn’t activate the brakes. The first car to offer a full system as we know it today was the Mercedes W220 S-Class, launched in 1998.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 – marvellous, and apart from usefulness, it was also an early automotive step towards autonomous operation.

ACTIVELY-CONTROLLED SUSPENSION: Mercedes-Benz CL-Class (1999)

The C215-generation CL ushered in the world’s first actively-controlled suspension system in 1999. Aptly named Active Body Control (ABC), hydraulic cylinders embedded in the suspension offset unwanted body motions such as the car leaning into a turn or the front end diving under heavy braking. It also considerably improved the big coupé’s handling and comfort.

In 2013, Mercedes went a step further: it attached the system to powerful computer which was fed readings from a camera which scanned the road ahead. Operating up to 81mph, it could detect bumps and potholes and immediately adjust the suspension accordingly, smoothing out the ride. Called Magic Body Control, it was a pricey option on high-end versions of the 2013 Mercedes S-Class W222.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a plus for handling & comfort.

NIGHT VISION: Cadillac DeVille (2000)

In 2000 GM used technology from Raytheon to make Cadillac the first car to offer Night Vision, in posh versions of the DeVille. It used an infra-red sensor to highlight objects of safety interest onto a monochrome Heads Up Display. Take-up of the $1995 option was brisk at first – 7000 in the first year, but this dropped to just 600 in 2004, and the option was dropped in 2005; Cadillac didn’t return to the Night Vision scene until 2015, with its CT6 flagship.

In the meantime, the largest German manufacturers among others had launched increasingly sophisticated night vision systems. They remain pricey options - £2250 and US$2260 on the current Mercedes S-Class, for example. Opinion on them is somewhat divided, but they are certainly becoming more intelligent.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 - If and when cars become fully autonomous, the ability for the car to see will become vital.

SATELLITE RADIO: Cadillac (2001)

Car radio can be a pain in America. Reception varies and some out of the way spots don’t have any at all. Satellite radio solved all that, ensuring stations on the same frequency where you are – and there’s no commercials either. Cadillac started offering XM Satellite Radio on its DeVille and Seville (pictured) models for the 2002 model year. It announced plans to roll out the option to its entire 2003 line-up in 2002.

Today over half of new cars sold in America feature the technology; of those, around half pay a monthly subscription. Current XM prices range from $11 per month for a basic package to $21 for the full works ,which includes NFL, NBA, and MLB coverage and, yes, Howard Stern.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 – a boon for America.

ELECTRONIC PARKING BRAKE: BMW 7 Series (2001)

Developed by Siemens, BMW was the first to introduce an electronic parking brake in its E65 7 Series that arrived in 2001. However, while the 7 Series was the first car to go on sale with such tech, Lancia almost claimed the credit with its Thesis.

This featured a TRW-developed electronic parking brake and while the Thesis was first shown before the 7 Series, it didn't go on sale until several months after.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 - love them or hate them, they’re here to stay.

CARBON-CERAMIC BRAKE DISCS: Porsche 996 GT2 (2001)

The problem with conventional steel brakes is that if you thrash a car mercilessly around a track, the brakes eventually give up because everything overheats. Brembo came up with a solution and it was the Porsche 911 GT2 (996 generation) that got the tech first: carbon-ceramic discs.

Those early cars weren't great to drive until everything had got hot, but nowadays such braking systems work better at lower temperatures too – which is just as well because they're still fiendishly expensive.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 - stopping power, at a price.

VOICE CONTROL: Infiniti Q45 (2002)

Arriving in the Infiniti Q45, for the first time ever you could control the navigation with your voice. For a long time since, such systems were still largely hit-and-miss in operation, often the latter.

Fast forward to today, and Amazon’s Alexa seems to have cracked voice recognition as well as anyone – no wonder that she’s now available in models from Audi, Ford, Lexus, and Toyota, and heading to others soon.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 - Alexa, can you understand me now?

DUAL-CLUTCH AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION: Volkswagen Golf R32 (2003)

Porsche started developing the dual-clutch automatic transmission for its race cars during the 1980s. It fitted the unit, which it called – and still calls – Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK), to the 956 and the 962. It took a long time before the technology appeared on a production model, though.

The first street-legal car equipped with a dual-clutch transmission was the 2003 Volkswagen Golf R32.

The six-speed unit was designed for front-wheel drive or, as in the Golf, front-based all-wheel drive applications. Audi offered the gearbox as an option on the TT 3.2 Quattro, which came with the same engine as the R32, the following year. The technology allows for swifter gear changes and greater economy.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 - automatics will never be the same again.

SELF PARKING: Toyota Prius (2003)

The saviour of inept drivers everywhere, the self-parking car was a godsend when it arrived in 2003. The first car to get it was the Japanese-market Toyota Prius; it would take another three years for overseas buyers to be able to choose this tech, when Lexus made it available on the LS.

Toyota called it Intelligent Parking Assist.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 - clever tech, even though it often takes longer than doing it yourself.

REMOTE ENGINE START: Chevrolet Malibu (2004)

Aftermarket manufacturers began offering remote engine starters during the mid-1980s. This tech allowed motorists to start their engine by pressing a button on their key fob if they were within a pre-set distance of the car.

However, it would be the early 21st century before car makers themselves offered a remote engine starter. One of the first cars available with the feature directly from the factory was the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu (pictured), and was boon for drivers in colder parts as they could warm the car up before entering.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 - great in colder climates.

BLIND SPOT WARNING SYSTEM: Volvo S80 (2006)

Volvo was the first company to fit a blind spot monitor, into its S80. Using small rear facing cameras mounted below the wing mirrors, it detects vehicles in the car’s blind spots and displays a warning light accordingly (inset, left). The technology has now been widely adopted, usually as part of an enhanced safety options package.

In 2010, Nissan took the concept further in its Fuga (inset, right) and Infiniti M models – if those cars detect the driver is attempting to move into a vehicle’s path, the steering wheel will actively resist the manoeuvre.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 - a potential life-saver.

AUTONOMOUS EMERGENCY BRAKING: Mercedes-Benz S-Class (2006)

Mercedes-Benz launched the world’s first autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system at the end of 2006. Called Pre-Safe Brake, the feature was offered as an option on the new W221 S-Class and the C216 CL-Class. AEB relied on existing technology.

Near- and long-range radars scoped out the road ahead and sent a signal to the ECU if they detected an imminent collision. The car emitted audible and visual warnings and automatically applied 40% of the maximum brake performance if the driver didn’t react.

This process happened in mere milliseconds. Mercedes’ in-house research found AEB could prevent 70% of rear-end collisions. It reduced the severity of the ones it couldn’t avert by around 40%. In 2009 Mercedes upgraded the system, enabling maximum braking force in emergency situations, first fitting it to the new W212 E-Class.

AEB quickly spread across the automotive industry and it began trickling down to more affordable cars in the early 2010s. It didn’t take long for law-makers to notice its unimpeachable life-saving potential, especially during the international rise of smartphones and their associated distraction. In America, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced every new car will need to come standard with AEB in 2022. The European Union will begin requiring it in 2021.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 8 - in an age of distracted driving, even more important than ever.

LED HEADLIGHTS: Lexus LS600h (2006)

LED headlights offer the best of all worlds: they're compact, very efficient and they last pretty much forever. The first car to feature LED headlights was the Lexus LS600h, but this was only on dipped beam.

However, within a year of the Lexus's 2006 launch, Audi was offering LED headlighting on dipped and main beam, on its R8 V10.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 - an advance into the light.

V12 DIESEL ENGINE: Audi Q7 (2008)

A V12 engine doesn’t have to burn petrol – it can burn diesel instead. But only Audi has ever put a V12 diesel engine into a production road car and what a monster it was: the Q7 6.0 TDi had 1000Nm of torque (740lb ft in old money), 493bhp and the ability to get from a standing start to 62mph in just 5.5 seconds.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 - pure grunt.

HYDROGEN FUEL CELL: Honda Clarity (2008)

It's more than a decade since the first hydrogen fuel cell car was launched, but the technology is still yet to make any kind of an impact thanks to almost non-existent infrastructure. Available only in Japan and California, and even then only on lease (no outright purchase available), the Clarity's success was limited.

Since then Hyundai, Mercedes and Toyota have launched hydrogen fuel cell cars of their own – but that lack of infrastructure and their cost ensures demand is seriously limited.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 - we might get this fuel, eventually.

SEVEN-SPEED MANUAL TRANSMISSION: Porsche 911 (2011)

Porsche surprised enthusiasts in 2011 when it introduced the 991-generation 911. Though it looked a lot like its predecessor, its sheet metal hid a number of advancements including the industry’s first seven-speed manual transmission.

The firm explained it made the first six gears shorter than in a six-speed for quick acceleration and the seventh taller to improve fuel economy at cruise. Chevrolet followed Porsche’s lead when it made a seven-speed manual available on the seventh-generation Corvette.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 3 - high speed and decent economy, at the same time.

APPLE CARPLAY: Ferrari FF (2014)

Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari long argued that his cars were all about the engine, and for a long time Ferrari interiors seemed modest. And, as a full part of the Fiat group since 1988, much Ferrari interior technology and more recently, multimedia systems, were inherited from the parent and often of a standard associated with rather lower price-points.

So it comes as a pleasant surprise to see the Ferrari FF take the title as the first production car to be fitted with Apple CarPlay. This system allows many of the functions of the driver’s iPhone to be operated from the car’s central control screen. In 2015 the Hyundai Sonata became the first car to be fitted with Android Auto, which operates in much the same way, but for Android phones. Today’s most new cars support both systems.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 6 - brilliant.

LASER HEADLIGHTS: Audi R8 LMX (2014)

Laser headlights offer even greater efficiency than LED items, as they use half the power and are even brighter. Audi was the first to offer such tech on its limited-run R8 LMX of 2014, which was restricted to just 99 units worldwide.

Within weeks of the R8 being announced, the BMW i8 went on sale with laser headlights as an option.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 - laser light.

48 VOLT ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: Bentley Bentayga (2015)

For decades, cars have featured six or 12-volt electrical systems. But with ever more complex trickery on cars – electric antiroll bars and electric turbos, for example – more power is needed to run them. The Bentley Bentayga got there first with a 48 Volt system, just ahead of its sister car, the Audi SQ7.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 5 - some day, all cars will have this.

DIGITAL KEY: Volvo (2016)

Volvo's Digital Key used Bluetooth technology to allow owners to leave their key fob at home and instead use their phone to lock or unlock their car and start the engine.

The Digital Key also made it possible for Volvo owners to share their car with someone by instantly sending a key, even if they’re thousands of miles away. Volvo believes its Digital Key will ultimately make the car key obsolete but will provide regular fobs for as long as customers ask for one.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 - very clever.

SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION: Ford F-150 (2016)

The term “10-speed” isn’t just for road bikes anymore. GM and Ford formed an unlikely alliance to design the first 10-speed automatic transmission and began producing it in 2017. Ford first brought it to the market in the 2017 F-150; GM chose to first use it in the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

As of 2019 it’s also found in a number of other cars including the Fords Mustang, Expedition, Everest, and Ranger models, and the Lincoln Navigator as well. On the GM side you can now find it in the Cadillacs Escalade and CT6, and Chevrolets Suburban RST, Tahoe, Camaro SS, and Silverado, and the GMC Yukon Denali. Meanwhile, Honda introduced its own 10-speed automatic transmission on the 2018 Odyssey.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: 4 - very handy for economy.

VARIABLE-COMPRESSION RATIO IGNITION: Infiniti QX50 (2017)

Infiniti introduced the second-generation QX50 on the eve of the 2017 Los Angeles auto show. Though it looks like yet another SUV from the outside, its sheet metal hides a trick piece of tech. It’s the first car available with a variable-compression ratio engine.

Variable compression technology and downsizing help the 268hp VC-Turbo engine return markedly better fuel economy than its V6-powered predecessor without completely neutering its performance genes or adding the weight and complexity of a hybrid powertrain. America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reckons the new SUV is 35% more economical than the 2018 V6 QX50.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say

FINGERPRINT SECURITY: Hyundai Santa Fe (2019)

Hyundai ripped a page from the Apple playbook when it developed a technology best described as Touch ID for cars. Thanks to fingerprint-sensing technology, drivers can unlock the car by touching a small sensor integrated into the door handle and they can start the engine by placing their finger over the ignition switch.

GROUNDBREAKER SCORE: Too early to say

Groundbreakers, by Richard Dredge, Ronan Glon and Tom Evans