2020 Cadillac XT4 Premium Luxury
Photo: Cadillac
Cars are full of features that most drivers take for granted. But, back in the day, features like self-dipping lights, turbocharging, and an automatic transmission were innovations, forever-changing the way cars were made and driven. Responsible for these notable innovations was an automaker that’s still in the game today — General Motors.
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Lights that automatically turned on at night or switched to a lower position to not blind an oncoming traffic, referred to as self-dipping lights, have been a staple of American cars for decades, according to Classic & Sports Car writer Chris Chilton.
“GM’s automatic light-dipping gadget was called Autronic Eye and worked via a strange pod mounted on the dash top that housed a light-sensing phototube,” Chilton writes. “By the mid-1950s GM had introduced Twilight Sentinel, a companion system that switched the headlights on and off depending on ambient light conditions.”
Driving got much more thrilling with turbocharging power, thanks to GM who released the tech in the 1960s, according to Chilton.
Automatic transmissions revolutionized driving, as many drivers find the gear-changing tech easier to handle than a manual transmission.
“The big car companies battled to make life easier for their drivers with partially automated transmissions, but it was GM who gave us the world’s first mass-produced automatic transmission, the HydraMatic,” according to Chilton.
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The first cars to run with the automatic transmission were 1940-year models.
“GM actually trialed the technology on Oldsmobiles first, waiting until 1941 when it knew the transmission was reliable before installing it in its flagship Cadillac brand,” he writes.
News Source: Classic & Sports Car
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