Right now, there are clever people all over the world working at creating an antibody test for Covid-19 that actually works, and a vaccine to the disease too. Both of which will allow the world to get going again.

While we look forward to them, how did inventions impact our world of cars? The modern car is an accumulation of inventions from both the distant and recent past, and is made of many parts.

Each of these parts had to be invented by somebody because machinery does not evolve on its own. As motoring history has progressed and cars have become increasingly complicated, more parts have been required, and that in turn means more inventors.

Some have been forgotten. The identity of others has been disputed. In extreme cases, so many people invented roughly the same thing at roughly the same time that it’s almost impossible to tell who came first. What follows is a list of who we believe were the true pioneers of the automotive age: