in 2001, ktvu's bab mckenzie redowned the role the automobiles had played in recent history of american progress. >> reporter: when the 20th century was young, automobiles were still a novelty. a parade of horseless carrages would draw an audience just about anywhere, they were just about what they sounded lying, carriages without horses. others were they resembled other carriages of the day and if one broke down, you could hook a horse to it and haul it home. by the early '20s, the automobile was king of the road, not only in the big city, but even out on the farm, where a trip into town, no longer involved hooking old bessy up to the buck board. not everyone could afford an automobile at first. triumph ones with a definite sign of success and to own one you had to be rich. it was not only a sumptuous carriage,mly appointed, but ran quietly and elegantly on steam. in the late teens a bright young san francisco engineer decided to make not just a car, but the best car in the world. after building a few sample cars in the east, abner in 1922 opened the steam motors in remry villanova and