From horseless carriages to fully autonomous vehicles, the automotive industry has seen a lot of changes over the years. During that time, there have been many inventions, and even more cars were produced. Did you know that the first modern automobile was designed by Karl Benz in 1886? It featured wire wheels and a rear-mounted engine. If you would like to know more about automotive trivia, here are five more random facts that you probably never knew about cars and driving.

1. The largest vehicle on Earth weighs over 45,000 tons

You might think that a Chevy Suburban is a massive car considering it weighs over 6,000 pounds. But that large SUV looks like an ant compared to the Bagger 288 excavator, which is the largest land vehicle on Earth. According to Life Hack, this massive machine is over 300 feet tall, 700 feet long, and weighs over 45,000 tons.

2. There are currently over 1 billion cars roaming the streets

There are approximately 8 billion humans currently roaming the Earth, but do you know how many cars there are? According to the Hedges Company, as of 2021, there are about 1.446 billion cars driving around this mortal coil. About 21% of that total resides in the United States.

3. The average car is made up of thousands of parts

While you likely only use a few different parts of your car every day – like the driver’s side door, seat, steering wheel, and shifter – you may not realize that your car is made up of thousands of different parts. In fact, there are over 30,000 parts used when building the average car. And while that sounds somewhat unbelievable, consider that there are many screws, bolts, and plastic pieces that make up the shiny set of wheels that you drive every day.

4. One horsepower does not equate to the power of one horse

A car’s horsepower is the measurement of its engine’s power output, however, it doesn’t actually equate to the power of a horse. Drive Tribe reports that in truth, the power of an actual horse is equivalent to 14.9 hp according to the initial definition created by James Watt.

5. The average person spends two weeks of their entire life waiting at red lights

If you currently commute to work, then you most likely sit at a few red lights along the way. According to AAA, the average American spends about 58.6 hours sitting at red lights each year, which can add up over the course of a lifetime. That’s a lot of time spent drumming on your steering wheel, so we recommend using it wisely and listening to a podcast or audiobook instead.

The automotive world is filled with random facts These are only five of the most random facts that we could find about driving and cars. However, there are plenty more out there. We’ll leave with this bonus fact; around 165,000 vehicles are produced each day on a global scale. Knowing that there’s a possibility that automobiles may actually outnumber humans someday. But don’t worry, it’ll be a while before that happens.