Automotive Tutorials - freebase-schema/freebase GitHub Wiki

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Review type Name Date Comments
Internal review Jon
Internal review Mike

Table of contents

#Introduction

The automotive industry began in the 1890s with hundreds of manufacturers that pioneered the horseless carriage. For many decades, the United States led the world in total automobile production. In 1929 before the Great Depression, the world had 32,028,500 automobiles in use, and the U.S. automobile industry produced over 90% of them. At that time the U.S. had one car per 4.87 persons. After World War II, the U.S. produced about 75 percent of world's auto production. In 1980, the U.S. was overtaken by Japan and became world's leader again in 1994. In 2006, Japan narrowly passed the U.S. in production and held this rank until 2009, when China took the top spot with 13.8 million units. With 19.3 million units manufactured in 2012, China almost doubled the U.S. production, with 10.3 million units, while Japan was in third place with 9.9 million units (reference Wikipedia).

##Automotive industry in Freebase go to the table of contents

Automotive domain in Freebase has many different types needed to describe automotive industry and currently contains about 9500 topics (as of 1/12/2014).

#Automotive company

##Type definition go to the table of contents

Automotive Company is a company that manufactures motor-powered vehicles (eg., cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks and motorized bikes).

There are 535 automotive companies in Freebase (as of 1/12/2014).

Main feature of an automotive company is a list of makes produced by this company.

##Examples go to the table of contents

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and luxury cars under the Lincoln brand.

There is an equivalent topic in Freebase for Ford Motor Company: /m/02zs4. It is a topic for an automotive company and is not the same as an automotive make Ford /en/ford. Company and make are incompatible and should not be matched.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly known as BMW or BMW AG, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. BMW is headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It also owns and produces Mini cars, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

There is an equivalent topic in Freebase for BMW automotive company: /m/017yh. It is a topic for an automotive company and is not the same as an automotive make BMW /m/0h6dlrc.

#Automotive make

##Type definition go to the table of contents

Automotive Make: An automotive make is a specific car line a manufacturer produces. For example, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Audi and Volkswagen are all makes.

There are 565 automotive makes in Freebase (as of 1/12/2014).

Main features of an automotive make are a parent company and a list of models.

##Examples go to the table of contents

GMC is a manufacturer of pickup and commercial trucks, buses, vans, military vehicles, and sport utility vehicles marketed in North America and the Middle East by General Motors. In January 2007, GMC was GM's second-largest-selling North American vehicle division after Chevrolet, ahead of Pontiac.

Equivalent topic in Freebase: GMC /m/0j72pxm. Parent company is General Motors /m/035nm and models are Opel Sintra, GMC Chevette, GMC Envoy, GMC Terrain and others.

Maserati (Italian pronunciation: [mazeˈraːti]) is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993.

Equivalent topic in Freebase: Maserati /m/0h5z1qm. Parent company is Maserati /m/0h4c9 and models are Maserati GranTurismo, Maserati Quattroporte, Maserati 350S and others.

#Automotive model

##Type definition go to the table of contents

Automotive Model: A model is a specific car carried under a make. For example, a Mustang is a model of a Ford. Models are further broken down into generations classifying styling and platform changes.

It is very important to understand the difference between the model, trim and body style and other auto schema classifications.

  1. Auto Model vs. Automotive Generation. If an entity is described as a version of a specific model, it doesn't automatically mean the entity is another model or a model's trim level rather an indication that it is a start of a new auto generation. Any model might have multiple incarnations over the course of their existence and these incarnations are referred to as automotive generation. An automotive generation describes a group of years in which a car line maintained the same general platform, size, shape and features. Example: Porsche 997 : A version of the auto model Porsche 911 manufactured between years 2004 and 2012.

  2. Auto Model vs. Auto Model Year. An auto model year is the version of a car made in a specific year. Generally, year before the model name is an indicator that an auto entity is a year model. Based on the Porsche 911 example, auto model year example is 2006 Porsche 997 GT3 and this model year belongs to the automotive generation Porsche 997 of the auto model Porsche 911. However, when we say Porsche 997 GT3, we can classify it as an auto model. It is a general label for a sub model manufactured under the parent model Porsche 911 during the Porsche 997 automotive generation. Since we currently do not have distinction between parent and sub models, both can be typed as auto model.

  3. Auto Model vs. Trim Level. A trim level is a version or level of a particular automotive model year. Trim levels are usually defined by different combinations of dimensions, equipment, driveline, engine, transmission, top speed and acceleration. In the context of Porsche 911 example, the Porsche 997 GT3 RS is a version of the model year 2010 Porsche 997 GT3 and described to have “a slightly different engine specification to the GT3. The cylinder heads of the GT3 RS have reshaped intake and exhaust ports for race homologation. Porsche claim the same 381 hp (284 kW) power output as the standard GT3 but Porsche's control dyno showed a jump to nearly 400 hp (298 kW)” in Wikipedia.

  4. Hybrids as Auto Model vs. Trim Level. Hybrids are automotive vehicles with engines capable of running through electricity and conventional vehicle fuel. Usually, auto versions with engine modifications are classified as trim levels, in the case of hybrids, we recognize it as a model since it carries a special type of engine and not just a difference of dimensions, equipment, driveline, engine, transmission, top speed and acceleration which are often the basis to identify a trim level.

  5. Model Series as Auto Model. Car model series such as BMW 5 Series is considered as auto model as it carries a specific automotive design or marketed by an auto company in a specific model group. Just like individual models, it can be sold in different body styles and have its own auto generations and sub models.

##Examples

The Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Originally introduced in the 1986 model year, it has remained in near-continuous production for more than two decades, making it the fourth oldest nameplate that is currently sold in the North American Ford lineup. Equivalent topic in Freebase is Ford Taurus /m/014_d3.

Mini Cooper was created by John Cooper and Alec Issigonis and debuted in 1961. It is currently produced by BMW automotive company. Mini Cooper is an automotive model and has different trims (Base, S, John Cooper Works) and body styles (Hatchback, Convertible, Coupe). Equivalent topic in Freebase is Mini Cooper /m/0hf2p.

#Automotive engine

##Type definition go to the table of contents

Automotive engine: The engine type is to be used to classify specific powerplants used in an automobile. These may be year-specific, but more frequently they often span multiple years, models, makes and generations.

Automotive engine has the following features:

  • make produced this engine
  • size in liters
  • horsepower
  • torque in ft-lbs
  • engine type
  • models it was used in
  • fuels used
  • trim levels it was used in

We only have 349 engine topics in Freebase now (as of 1/12/2014) but last year we had about 5000 of them. Most of those topics didn't have enough information filled in and were only linked to specific model years. We cleaned up /automotive/engine type and removed most topics with missing information to avoid any confusion.

##Examples go to the table of contents

Maybach 5.5L 12 Cylinder 543 hp 664 ft-lbs Turbo is an automotive engine with the following features:

  • make is Maybach
  • size is 5.5L
  • 543 hoursepower
  • torque 664 ft-lbs

There is an equivalent topic in Freebase for this engine: /m/040fm07.

Mercedes-Benz 6.2L 8 Cylinders 451 hp 443 ft-lbs is an automotive engine with the following features:

  • make is Mercedes-Benz
  • size is 6.2L
  • 451 hoursepower
  • torque 443 ft-lbs

There is an equivalent topic in Freebase for this engine: /m/04llybm.

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