- The automotive industry is a cradle of innovation and creativity. And that is how cars have
managed to evolve so much in only 130 years. There are churches in Europe that took 300 years to be built. But here's the thing, not all inventions are good. And not all good inventions
end up getting made. In this episode we're gonna talk about
10 failed car inventions and also talk about
some of the great ideas which never made it to market. So expect to hear about a
car that can make coffee, suspension made by a stereo company, and even a freaking horse head. Get your number two pencils all sharp 'cause there will be a
Scantron test at the end. This is "D-List". Number 10, Fiat 500L espresso machine. In 2013 the Fiat 500L, I think the L probably stands for latte, was the first car, surprisingly, to be offered with its own coffee maker. Beside the Trans Am that
Xzibit pimped out in 2004. I always say Edison, Tesla, Xzibit. This optional $300
coffee experience package meant that between the
front and back seats in the space you'd
usually find a cup holder sat a legit espresso maker. It had its own power supply and it would brew you up an
espresso in a matter of minutes. Now I am a former barista. My foam art game is top level. And I think this is a terrible idea. Boiling water in a moving vehicle? An easy access to mind-altering
levels of caffeine? What could possibly go wrong? Unsurprisingly, it didn't
sell all that well. And in fact, it didn't sell over here in the US at all. Maybe Fiat was scared
because Americans sue people. We got lawyers. And them lawyers would
be hungry for a nice "I burnt myself on my espresso machine "and crashed into this kindergarten" case. Built-in espresso machine, less coffee stops, more bathroom stops, which brings me on to this. Number nine, Cadillac in-car toilet. This one's awesome. This is not a joke at all. Cadillac actually invented a car with a built-in toilet. It was designed to help them complete a 10,000-mile continuous drive as part of a publicity stunt
that they were planning. But after that success, Cadillac actually considered
fitting it to production cars and they weren't alone. Rolls Royce also played
with toilet technology in the early 1950s. Kids, do not play with toilet technology. Toilet technology is a tool, not a toy. The 1954 Rolls Royce Vignale was a one of one commissioned by a guy from
New York, Joseph Maschuch. It was a re-bodied
long-base silver Wraith. Maschuch ordered many bespoke features. The engine block, cylinder
head, and carburetor were all painted in forest green. The valve covers were chromed. And there was a toilet
built into the back seat. Now obviously this
wasn't ever gonna become a feature a on production cars 'cause there were two many
issues with the plumbing. But in 1954 Rolls Royce's solution was to just have the doo doo and pee pee fall onto the road under the car. Classy, Rolls Royce. Very classy. The average person spends between six and eight hours a day online. That's a lot. It's important to make sure
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these videos for free. Number eight, Mercedes
Air-Balance package. The Mercedes S-Class is
the vehicle from which the rest of the automotive
world takes inspiration. And over the years so much tech has been
seen for the first time on the S-Class. I'm talking air suspension,
ventilated seats, seatbelt pretensioners,
keyless entry and ignition, radar guided cruise control just to name a lot. But one S-Class advancement,
which was a step too far, was the Mercedes Air-Balance package. I know, it sounds like a collab between New Balance and Nike, but it's not. It was basically a bottle of perfume hidden in the glove compartment that would circulate
through the car's air supply and keep the car smelling fresh forever. The problem, oh, it sounds great, couldn't
possibly see a problem. Well, the problem is, turns out that tons of
people all over the world are allergic to the ingredients
that make up most perfumes. And so despite offering that
fresh new car smell forever, the Mercedes Air-Balance package gave people rashes and
respiratory problem. And it's a shame 'cause how many times have you been on a road trip with your dad and he's just pounding
McDonald's breakfast burritos, just farting, fart, farting, and you want to roll down your window but it's the middle of winter
and you're in West Virginia and it's 32 degrees outside, and you just wish that you had
a button that you could press to make all those dad farts go away? Number seven, BOSE magnetic ride. BOSE, yeah, the speaker guys, had an idea which in my opinion was totally awesome. Now the idea was to use magnetics to adjust the car suspension in only a few thousandths of a second after it sensed a bump in the road, and in doing so kept
the car completely flat no matter what terrain
you were driving on. Active suspension
nowadays is fairly common, but 15 years ago it was a novelty. BOSE went and took it to
another level altogether. The result of the BOSE system
was a super smooth ride and one of the most soothing video clips ever to be introduced into the world. I mean, look at this. That doesn't even look real. But it was too heavy and far too expensive to be offered in a standard road car. But the idea has been sold
to another manufacturer who's attempting to work out the kinks, and I hope they do because
it sounds freaking awesome and I want more of these
super soothing clips of just all kinds of cars. Number six, onboard record player. Our good friends over at
Chrysler pioneered this bad boy, offering an alternative to
the crackle of an AM radio with this, the in-car phonograph. Hey kid, put on your records. Ooh, you like them wax
pressings? (scatting) This was a real thing, not just a concept. They actually produced it in many of their popular 1950s cars. But it wasn't without its
downsides as you can imagine. Record players need to be
completely static to work. The slightest movement will
cause the needle to skip, or worse than that, scratch the vinyl, damaging it forever. And supposedly it was near impossible to change the record from side A to side B without having a head-on
collision I can imagine. The beyond that, the needle was prone to skipping whenever the car went over a bump, which on 1950s roads,
was every two seconds. The needle had to be spring-loaded to make good contact with the record. This resulted in records
being absolutely destroyed after two to three plays. Ah man, I would be so disappointed if my super rare original
pressing of "Dude Ranch" got ruined while I was
driving in my 50s Chrysler. Nolan's actually about to pick up a 1950s Chrysler Imperial
in the next couple weeks. He's gonna park it at
my house and work on it. So hopefully that one has a record player or maybe I can source him one so he can just bump Deftones on vinyl as he drives through the hood. Number five, child partition. Being stuck driving a
car for hours and hours with kids or people you don't
like can be a total drag. I mean, we've all been there. So would it shock you if I told you that the answer was
actually invented in 1940? Many auto manufacturers experimented with sliding
partition tech at that time. It was thought that a
limousine-style screen between parents and children would lighten the burden on the driver so they could focus on driving. The limousine screen itself
dates back even further to the days of the horse and buggy. Back then the occupants would sit in sumptuous velvet-coated quilted luxury while the driver sat on
a wooden bench outside. The sliding partition
really never took off in everyday passenger vehicles. Mostly due to the concern for the safety of unsupervised
and inaccessible children. I would've loved to have a
partition when I was a kid. Not to keep me from them
to keep them from me. Number four, horse head. This one sounds terrifying. While we're on the subject
of horse-drawn carriages, allow me to introduce to you the most abstract invention on this list. Now when cars first started, you might not know this if you were born less than 100 years ago, it was a really scary thing for people. I mean, cars don't have souls, they don't have eyes. That's a thing that people used to say. I mean, my car doesn't have eyes, man. Your horse, theoretically, would keep you from
driving it off of a cliff. And it wasn't just the people
who had a problem with cars, it was horses too. Horses had a rough time sharing the roads with these new gas machines. The solution to stop the horses from
getting spooked was simple. They would put a life-sized
horse's head made of wood on the front of a car. Unsurprisingly, it didn't stop
horses from getting spooked, the thing didn't work. But as we know, gradually horses were
replaced on the roads by cars and the problem sort of worked itself out. Turns out the problem wasn't the cars, it was the horses. So we got rid of the horses. However, the days of
spooked horses are over. Because nowadays horses are buff. If you like buff horses as much as I do, go to donutmedia.com and get yourself a new
buff horses T-shirt. This is my favorite thing
that we've ever made. But if horses are too buff for you, maybe try the less buff
version of a horse, i.e. a dog. And if you want to take your
dog on the road with you without getting a bunch of
hair all over your interior I got a product for you. Number three, dog sacks. If you're anything like me you love your car and you love your dog, but you can't stand getting
hair, fleas, slobber, bits of food all over
your clean car seats. The solution, dog sacks. It was basically a canvas sack with hole a for your dog's
head and hooks at the top that you would hook over your open window and your dog would just fly
on the side of your car. How insane is that? Now I don't think it's that
bad of an idea honestly, especially of you have a dog and you don't have an SUV or a hatchback. I mean, people carry
really small dogs around in freaking backpacks and handbags all the time in Beverly Hills, so what's the difference in this, hmm? Tell me in the comments. Number two, disappearing doors. Now this is another one that I wish would've been more successful. The incredible disappearing
doors as seen on the BMW Z1. In a world where gull
wing, scissor, Lambo, even suicide doors are a feature
on several different models the fact that disappearing doors aren't, that's a crying shame. That's a crying shame. Check out how cool these
freaking things are. I could watch that all day. The system works using a
series of motors and belts which is needlessly complicated
and very, very heavy. But that doesn't stop it from looking totally freaking awesome. BMW didn't actually
pioneer this technology. That accolade goes to
Kaiser Darrin Motor Company and their KF-161 which launched in 1953. And it had doors that rolled forward into
the body work using rollers. Number one, the fifth wheel. You ever been on a date with two couples and you're not a couple but you're friends with all four of them? And they just start kissing and you ain't got no one to kiss? That's called being a fifth wheel. But that's not the fifth
wheel I'm talking about today. Parallel parking has always been one of the hardest skills for
average drivers to master. I mean, I'm really, really,
really, really, good at it but not everybody is and that's okay. You got to reverse, you got to steer, you got to try not to scratch your car, you got to try not to curb your wheels, you got to try not to hit two other cars. That's hard. And parallel parking has lead to a ton of different innovations trying to tackle it. I'm talking curb feelers which are cool. Those big matte things
that go on people's bumpers to protect them in the cities, which I think are not cool. Makes your car look like
you're wearing a diaper. They have cars now which
just parallel park themselves which I think is trippy. So what did people do before? It may surprise you to
know that way back in 1951 the retracting fifth
wheel was the solution to all your parallel parking needs. It would drop down and allow you to steer
the rear of your car directly into the space. Problem solved, right? Wrong, okay, wrong. It didn't solve the problem. The thing was heavy, it was impractical, and really, really hard
to design a car around it. And it was prone to dropping
down during normal driving, destroying itself, or not deploying at all when
you were parallel parking and you actually needed it. Turns out it was not a very
good invention -- practicality. Now this seems to be an interesting idea that
was poorly executed. I could think of a few people, Mom, who could use a fifth wheel for parking, but I don't want to
blow up their spot, Mom. Now all this research got me thinking that maybe I could come up
with my own car invention, and in 100 years when someone
else is doing a roundup of failed car inventions
on GlorpTube or whatever, maybe I'll be on that list. So I thought really long and hard about what problem I wanted to fix. And then one night, in
the middle of the night, it hit me like a ton of bricks. And I got up out of my coffin and I wrote it down in a notebook. A lot of cars these days
are, let's say ugly. We can't have angular front ends. We aren't allowed to have pop
up, up and down headlights, and why is that? It's because of pedestrian
safety regulations. But let me ask you this, what are pedestrians doing for car safety? Nothing, until now. Allow me to introduce to you the Pumphrey Pedestrian
Accident Safety Suit. By wearing this revolutionary safety suit at all times when outside of
the outside and not in a car, I predict that fatalities in
pedestrian traffic incidents could fall as low as 0%. Problem solved. Pop up, up and down
headlights are back, baby. (synth cue) If you enjoyed this video and
want to watch another video having to do with innovations
in the car industry, check out this episode of my best friend Nolan's
show "Wheelhouse". Thank you guys so much
for watching "D-List" and everything else on Donut Media. If this is your first
video, welcome aboard. It's very a nice place to be. Go ahead and hit that Subscribe button and like that Like bell. We got a new video everyday. I love you.
(intense synth music)
