automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used 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 automobile is far from precise, because there are many types
of vehicles that do similar tasks.
There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car
per eleven people).[2][3] Around the world, there were about 806 million cars
and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 1 billion m³ (260 billion
US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are
increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.[
automobile comes, via the French automobile, from the Ancient Greek word αὐτός (autós,
"self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); 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 Mid.