IELTS/TOEFL academic vocabulary: Cars and car technology
hi and welcome to this vocabulary lesson i'm louisa and today we're going to talk about words related to cars and car technology all of us use cars and have to deal with traffic on a daily basis and cambridge ielts 15 has a passage called driverless cars so we're going to look at some words from that text and i'll also give you example sentences from the passage you should remember that the vocabulary from this lesson might appear in any other topic discussion and in any other exam section be it reading listening writing or speaking so it will be useful for you for the whole exam preparation so let's get started the first word in today's lesson is automotive automotive is american pronunciation an automotive automotive is british pronunciation it's an adjective and it means relating to cars and car production it's a formal word that normally comes before nouns for example the automotive industry in other words the car industry the store stocks automotive parts this means that the store has a lot of car parts the next word is automation automation it's a noun and it means the use of machines and computers to do work that was previously done by people in other words automation is the process of using machines and computers which today do the work that people did before for example automation means the loss of manufacturing jobs that is because machines and computers are used in the factory a lot of people have lost their jobs automation has helped to increase production this means the production has been increased because of the use of machines and computers to automate is the web form automate in other words it means to use machines and computers instead of people to do a job or task for example the entire manufacturing process has been automated this means that in this manufacturing process everything is done by machines and computers and humans are not involved in this process the factory is now fully automated according to this sentence no people take part in the factory processes automated is an adjective automated carried out by machines and computers without needing human control for example automated check-in machines are common in airports this means that these check-in machines they work without any human beings controlling them let's look at an example from a passage the automotive sector is well used to adapting to automation in manufacturing this sentence means that it's very common in automotive sector that is in car sector to use machines and computers in the manufacturing process the next word is vehicle vehicle it's a formal word and it means a thing that is used for transporting people or goods from one place to another such as a car or lorry in this picture you can see many vehicles you can say an ambulance car a just a private car a bus a boat a scooter and even a motorbike so all of these are examples of vehicles motor vehicles cars buses lorries etc that is vehicles that have an engine the thieves escaped in a stolen vehicle there has been an increase in the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents this means that the number of deaths that happened on the roads because of the vehicles that is because of the cars and other means of transport on the roads has increased the government should impose tighter controls on vehicle emissions this means that the government should be stricter about a vehicle emissions that is about the gases which vehicles sent out into the atmosphere let's look at an example a new challenge to vehicle production is now on the horizon this means that there is a new problem in vehicle production which is coming soon the next word is self-driving self-driving is an adjective and if a vehicle is self-driving it has the technology to drive itself without a person in control it's a synonym for words such as driverless or autonomous for example the company is designing a self-driving car a self-driving car means no human is needed to control it a self-driving car must be able not only to follow lanes on a road but also to react to other traffic let's look at an example in the passage since google announced in 2010 that it had been trialing self-driving cars on the streets of california progress in this field has quickly gathered pace this means that in 2010 google stated that it was designing and producing self-driving cars in california and since then there has been a lot of progress in this area the next word is collide collide if two people vehicles etc collide they crash into each other you can see that in this picture the blue car and the black car they have collided if a person vehicle etc collides with another or with something that is not moving they crash into it now if you imagine that this black car wasn't moving so the blue car crashed into the black car or the blue car collided with the black car example the two cars collided at the crossroads it was predicted that a comet would collide with one of the planets collision collision collision is the noun form an accident in which two vehicles or people crash into each other example there was a collision between two trains it means two trains collided so there was a collision between them the employee was injured in a collision with the machine the car was in collision with a motorbike the collision occurred at the traffic lights now an example from the passage more than 90 percent of road collisions involve human error as a contributory factor automation may help reduce the incidence of this according to this sentence more than 90 percent of road accidents happen because of people's mistakes and the use of technology can help decrease the number of such accidents now let's look at the next word and it is mobility mobility is american pronunciation and mobility mobility is british it's an uncountable noun and it means the ability to move or travel around easily let's look at some examples a private car gives a much greater degree of comfort and mobility this means that if you have a private car you have more comfort and you are able to move and travel around more easily shuttles will give mobility to employees without cars i prefer the mobility of a handheld camera this means that i like this camera more because it's i'm able to move it around more easily the adjective form is mobile mobile is american and mobile is british pronunciation mobile is an adjective that means that is not fixed in one place for instance mobile equipment or a mobile clinic a mobile shop a mobile library if a library is mobile it means it is contained inside a vehicle and it can distribute books in places where it goes let's look at an example from the passage if the vehicle can do the driving those who are challenged by existing mobility models such as older and disabled travelers may be able to enjoy significantly greater travel autonomy what this sentence is trying to tell us is that if a vehicle can drive itself that is if this vehicle is a driverless automated vehicle people who cannot use the existing mobile mobility models such as buses or trains or cars and those are normally older and disabled travelers they will be able to travel more independently if they use these kinds of cars the next word is mileage mileage is a noun and it means the distance that a vehicle has traveled measured in miles and as a reminder 1 mile equals 1 609 meters an example sentence there was no record of the mileage the car had done this means that there was no record of how many miles or how many kilometers the car had traveled my annual mileage is about 8 000. this means that i normally travel about 8 000 miles every year the employees get a mileage allowance if they use their cars for work that is if employees use their cars for work they get an amount of money paid for each mile they travel and the passage example automated vehicles might reduce vehicle ownership by 43 percent but vehicles average mileage would double as a result according to this sentence automated vehicles that is vehicles which are not driven by people which do not need human control will be owned by fewer people so not many people will own such automated vehicles but the vehicle's average mileage would double that means how far the cars will go that is the mileage of the cars the distance they will travel will double as a result the next word is unoccupied unoccupied is an adjective and it means empty with nobody living there or using it for example an unoccupied house so there is no one living in an unoccupied house you can take a seat at the unoccupied table that is you can sit down at the table where nobody is sitting the opposite or the antonym of the word is occupied occupied is an adjective and it means being used by somebody for example the most densely occupied areas of the country that is the areas of the country where there are a lot of people only half of the rooms are occupied at the moment only half of the rooms have people living in them at the moment verb form is occupy occupy means to fill or use a space an area or an amount of time for example as the company grew it continued to occupy more space in other words as the company grew it got larger so it had to fill it had to use a larger area studying occupies half of my time in other words i spend half of my time studying occupation is the noun form occupation is an uncountable and formal noun and it means the act of living in or using a building room piece of land etc example the new rule will not affect tenants in occupation in other words the new rule will not be used for those who are already living in the building the houses were judged to be unfit for human occupation that means humans or people could not live in those houses and an example from the passage since for most of the time most of the seats in most cars are unoccupied this may boost production of a smaller more efficient range of vehicles according to this sentence most most of the time a lot of the places a lot of the seats in the car are empty and this may lead to an increase in the production of smaller cars and the next word is reliable reliable is an adjective and it means able to work or operate for long periods without breaking down or needing attention for example the machine has a highly reliable control system this means that the system the control system of this car or i mean of this machine can work for long periods of time and it doesn't need a lot of attention it doesn't break easily people are often willing to pay a premium for familiar reliable services reliable service means it doesn't um just it's not disrupted very often it can continue working for a long time without the need of people to correct it reliably is an adverb and reliability is the noun form reliability is the american pronunciation and reliability is british reliability shows how well a machine a piece of equipment or system works example german vehicle manufacturers have built up a reputation for reliability in other words everyone knows that german vehicle manufacturers have reliable cars they produce reliable cars that work for a long time and do not need to be repaired very often to most users the reliability of the company's products is far more valuable than their design in other words for for users it's not the design is not so important it's more important that the company's product work for a long time they are durable they do not break easily manufacturers are looking at ways of improving the car's reliability that is they want their cars to work longer periods and that their cars do not need to be repaired very often and now the passage example there are a number of hurdles to overcome in delivering automated vehicles to our roads these include technical difficulties in ensuring that the vehicle works reliably in the infinite range of traffic now let's look at these two sentences separately according to the first one there are a number of problems in delivering driverless cars to our roads so it's not easy to deliver automated vehicles to roads and there are some technical difficulties in that because it's not easy to make a vehicle work work well work properly in traffic and finally we've got the word operate operate one meaning of this verb is to work in a particular way for example most domestic freezers operate at below minus 18 degrees celsius mind that in this meaning the word operate is often followed by an adverb or preposition and in this particular example it's followed by the preposition at so most domestic freezers work at this kind of temperature another example solar panels can only operate in sunlight which means they can only work in sunlight and once again the word operate is followed by the preposition in operate in sunlight another meaning is to use or control a machine or make it work for example the machinery is easy to operate that is this machinery is easy to make it work it's easy to control they use a remotely operated camera that is they use a camera that can be controlled remotely so you don't have to stand close to the camera in order to control it the doors can be manually operated in the event of fire this means that if there's a fire if in case in case of fire the doors can be used uh or controlled by hand operation is the noun form operation is the way that parts of a machine or system work the process of making something work that's kind of the second meaning of this word so it's not just the way it works but it's also the process of making something work for example operation of the device is extremely simple that is making this device work is extremely simple so it's easy to control it it's simple to control it competition is central to the operation of markets that is for the markets to work it's very important for competition to be present and the example when drivers are no longer essential for vehicle operation according to this phrase we're talking about the time when drivers will not be needed for for vehicles to work i hope the explanation was clear i would strongly recommend that you download the pdf file that goes with this video and read the full passage also try to do the questions that follow the passage let me know if you have any questions i'll see you in the next video
2022-03-07 10:42
