Correct Option: B

The invention of the first automatic car is more evolutionary than the result of a single invention. Frenchmen Louis-Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor are recognized for inventing the modern transmission in 1894, but it was Thomas J. Sturtevant of Boston, Mass., who designed the first automatic transmission in 1904. In 1938, General Motors developed the first line of cars to sport automatic transmission — Oldsmobiles that offered “Hydra-Matic drive.” The cars were introduced to the public in 1940. In 1941, Chrysler followed suit and introduced three different cars that offered their version of automatic drive, “Vacamatic” (later called “Fluid Drive”). Automatic transmission was a fairly common option on most American cars by 1948. Ford-O-Matic was the first automatic transmission widely used by Ford Motor Company.