The car that we know – petrol or diesel-driven and operated by a human – will soon be replaced by electric cars which, in turn, will become self-driving. The reign of the car, which began in the late nineteenth century, will have lasted at most 150 years.More than any other technology – more than television, mobile phones, more even than the internet – cars have transformed our culture. They have transformed our sense of distance and made the world infinitely more available to our eyes and our imaginations. They have inspired cinema, music and literature; they have, by their need for roads, bridges, filling stations, huge factories and global supply chains, re-engineered the world. Almost everything we now need, want, imagine or aspire to assumes the existence of cars in all their limitless power and their complex systems of meanings.

Author Bryan Appleyard Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 9781474615396 EAN 9781474615396 Bic Code Cover Hardback