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"Out in the wider world, beyond human civilization, evolution is all about natural selection; the species that are best adapted to their surroundings thrive, reproduce and crowd out those that don&amp;#039;t fit. In certain ways engineering turns that premise on its head. Rather than adapting as a species to our environment, using engineering we work to adapt our environment to suit our own limitations. At the same time, engineering itself has indeed adapted to changing the capabilities of tools and to the many constraints that drive design decisions. The industrial age brought with it numerous technical and societal changes that changed the constraints engineers have to deal with. The development of new kinds of engineering and manufacturing tools enabled the ongoing development of superior tools and products including new forms of transportation such as planes, trains and automobiles.  In turn the transportation advancements enabled new and larger kinds of businesses never seen before. The combination of new businesses and the ability to move people and products across the country and around the world led to both competition and government regulations meant to try and protect people from some of the new dangers appeared for the first time. As cars moved beyond the very earliest examples, it became clear that improving on speed and endurance could help build the businesses that made them. From hand-built machines for the privileged few, new manufacturing methods used by the likes of Henry Leland and Henry Ford brought interchangeable parts and streamlined assembly processes making cars more affordable and reliable. While the 1908 introduction of the Model T was a huge step toward the mainstream for cars, it wasn&amp;#039;t until the introduction of the moving assembly line 100 years ago that costs really came down and sales took off. That explosion in sales was like the introduction of an invasive species into an ecosystem, crowding out most of the thousands of carmakers that existed at the time. Some of the companies that were able to duplicate Ford&amp;#039;s methods and scale eventually thrived. The potential to earn profits previously unheard of in human history drove the competition to go farther, faster and in more style. Within the span of a couple of decades, the design of the automobile and its capabilities literally went from the horseless carriage to something more akin to real cars.  Aside from the war years when civilian production was suspended, the urge to beat the competition led to ever more powerful, dangerous and polluting vehicles which inevitably attracted the lawyers and politicians into the picture. Engineers now have to protect vehicle occupants by trying to prevent crashes, restrain them during an accident and notify first responders after the fact. They also have to go further on less energy and leave less of a trail behind in the atmosphere. The established players in the business have also had to learn to deal with upstart competitors from Japan, South Korea and now China. The auto industry isn&amp;#039;t a natural organism, but in many respects it has had to evolve as one to survive and thrive in changing conditions and it&amp;#039;s the engineers that have to make that change a reality.  Ultimately however, despite all these high-minded words about adaptation and survival, one must remember that the auto industry is driven forward by human executives that often have enormous egos and like to brag about having the biggest, fastest and strongest machines. How else does one explain the existence of the Bugatti Veyron, Porsche 918, McLaren P1 and LaFerrari? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a4507/the-motivation-for-change/>