Cars now a days are awesome! There’s really no other way to say it. Modern cars can come equipped with DVD players, Blue Tooth, heated seats, reverse cameras, 4g connectivity, eco modes, they really are awesome. It wasn’t that long ago that it was an add on to have air conditioner, or power windows, or a tape player, and it wasn’t much earlier than that, that cars didn’t even come equipped with power steering!
Now, what is power steering, I hear you ask through the copper wires that make up the world wide web. At it’s most basic element, power steering is a device that aids in turning a vehicles wheels. It provides stability at high speeds, dampens road shock while driving, mainly helps turn a vehicle at low speeds with modest effort and just makes driving easier.
Now a long time ago, in the early days and even up to the 80’s, most consumer vehicles were not equipped with power steering. This made turning at slow speeds a feat and a good forearm workout. At higher speeds the lack of power steering was a small inconvinience as vehicles turn pretty easy when cruising down the road.
It took until the early 1950’s and a military contract before any major leaps were made with power steering. The first major implementation was to aid with the safety and steering of heavily armored vehicles during WW2. It wasn’t until 1951 that the Chrysler Corporation saw the first commercial power steering system included in passenger cars. Called “Hydraguide” based on a previous employees expired patients, and following suit General Motors started installing their own versions of power steering in the 1952 Cadillac. In moderns times, it’s nearly impossible to find a vehicle that doesn’t have power steering. With wider tires and greater vehicle sizes would make it difficult to manage most modern vehicles without it.