Automobile

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"Car" redirects here. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).

Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) - entered into an early automobile race

Passenger cars in 2000

World map of passenger cars per 1000 people.

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.^[1] However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks.

Automobile comes via the French language, from the Greek language by combining auto [self] with mobilis [moving]; meaning a vehicle that moves itself, rather than being pulled or pushed by a separate animal or another vehicle. The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum [wheeled vehicle], or the Middle English word carre [cart] (from Old North French), and karros; a Gallic wagon.^[2][3]

As of 2002, there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people).^[4]