Crossing 2000 Miles of Siberia to Reach One of the Most Isolated Cities on Earth(thedrive.com)
thedrive.com
Crossing 2000 Miles of Siberia to Reach One of the Most Isolated Cities on Earth
https://www.thedrive.com/news/38035/russian-off-roaders-crossed-2000-miles-of-siberia-to-reach-one-of-the-most-isolated-cities-on-earth
98 コメント
Wow. Some of their kids lived until the early 1970s. The things they lived to see from the late 1880s to the early 1979s include so many things like 2 world wars, the invention of the airplane to jet flights being commonplace, men going to the moon, from early automobiles to fast race cars, from classical music to disco (oh, wait...)
My grandmother lived roughly during the same era. This led to some funny things, she would answer the telephone in her bedroom but refused to have a TV there because 'If I can see them, who is to guarantee they can't see me?'.
Tech progress in the last two hundred years is nothing short of incredible, plenty of what we see today as normal would have been absolute magic just a few short decades ago.
This hit me hard when driving in Arizona somewhere and having a cell phone conversation with another dutch person who was driving in Canada, both of us on our tri-band cell phones with roaming contracts. Crystal clear, as if we were standing next door to each other and neither of us realized that we were abroad (and on another continent than normally) until halfway into the conversation. That's how normal it has become to be able to talk to everybody all the time.
Tech progress in the last two hundred years is nothing short of incredible, plenty of what we see today as normal would have been absolute magic just a few short decades ago.
This hit me hard when driving in Arizona somewhere and having a cell phone conversation with another dutch person who was driving in Canada, both of us on our tri-band cell phones with roaming contracts. Crystal clear, as if we were standing next door to each other and neither of us realized that we were abroad (and on another continent than normally) until halfway into the conversation. That's how normal it has become to be able to talk to everybody all the time.
Little did she know that they couldn't see her... Yet. And today tracking and surveillance is so common place that people became complacent.
If you dropped a modern kid into 1975, so less than 50 years, so much would be strange. No Internet, no cell phone, effectively no PCs, just a bit of mail order, scheduled TV, etc. I sometimes only half-joke that if I got dropped into my first tech job (as a product manager) in the mid-80s, I'd quit after a week because I would be so frustrated trying to do my job. (And we even had things like email.)
After the "Ghost Road" story on HN a few days ago [1], out of boredom and curiosity, I did a little browsing around online maps in Russia and noticed there really aren't any major roads at all connecting northern/eastern Siberia to the rest of Russia--unless Google Maps and Openstreetmap are woefully incomplete, which is possible. It seems so alien to my pampered US sensibilities, all spoiled by our glorious interstate highway system and regional State highways. How can the vast majority of a country's small towns and land area be not even remotely accessible by so much as a dirt road?? I get that few people live there, but the ones that do, how do they go anywhere else in Russia?
In the US, most of the country is at most 5-6 miles from some kind of road. Maybe there are spots in Yellowstone that are 20 miles from a road, but thats orders of magnitude less remote than what Maps depicts about Siberia!
1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25574180
In the US, most of the country is at most 5-6 miles from some kind of road. Maybe there are spots in Yellowstone that are 20 miles from a road, but thats orders of magnitude less remote than what Maps depicts about Siberia!
1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25574180
Perhaps a better comparison to Russia would be Canada rather than the United States? Similarly much of the north isn't accessible by roads year round or at all. It either doesn't make sense based on the population of the towns or is very impractical over the hash terrain.
Canada, and especially "the North", has many towns, only accessible by winter; ice roads. After freeze up, they are plowed, and maintained. After break up in the spring, those towns are only re supplied with groceries, medical supplies, traveling doctors, etc. By airplane. There is a lot of pressure to stock up in the winter.
The region is covered by muskeg ( swamp), rivers and lakes. Winter is the only time many places are accessible. This also is true for mineral, oil and gas exploration. Winter is a blessing. Global warming, will give rise to many interesting questions about accessibility.
See Norman Wells, Tuktoyaktuk, and Aklavik. New highways, old ice roads.
Global warming will change where we live for very large numbers of people. The problem is that the change is slow enough for people to ignore it.
Hmm sounds like real estate in Siberia predicting global warming to warm it up would be a nice multi generational investment
The book Windfall details all sorts of ways that people are trying to make a buck off of climate change. Good book if you want to see a different side of the issue.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079772-windfall
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079772-windfall
Winter is a blessing for transportation and for O&G activity. The incredibly short days and cold nights are definitively not a blessing for the the humans living up there.
Yes, but you will take cold winter any day over the summer bugs. Lot of water and enough black flies and mosquitoes to drive fully grown moose insane.
I think it could also be argued that the proliferation of roads and highways in the United States led to more mobility for citizens. A chicken-and-egg question, for sure, but people are unlikely to move to a place that is largely inaccessible.
> I get that few people live there, but the ones that do, how do they go anywhere else in Russia?
They do not; and this surprised me a lot when I found out. There still today is a very large number of people who have not travelled outside 50 km/30 miles radius from their home during their entire life.
They do not; and this surprised me a lot when I found out. There still today is a very large number of people who have not travelled outside 50 km/30 miles radius from their home during their entire life.
meanwhile I've heard siberia is also famous for considering just a normal business a 300 km fishing trip in all-terrain vehicles via something barely resembling a road.
Don’t forget Alaska. There are roads connecting the Yukon to Fairbanks and Anchorage, and the unpaved Dalton Highway connecting Fairbanks to the North Slope, but there are no roads connecting Fairbanks to the western part of the state at all. Most of the state and its towns and villages are accessible only via aircraft. There are no roads to Juneau, the state capital, for instance. Hawaii has an interstate on the island of Oahu, but Alaska has no interstate highways to speak of. It is a VERY undeveloped state.
People don't travel much in those places. During the summer a lot of them are almost completely cut off, though there's often small aviation flights from some of them, so people can get out in emegencies. The situation is a lot better during the winter with https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%B8... (ice roads), that's how and when most travel/supply trips happen.
I live in Canada and our northern regions are mostly unconnected by roads. A lot of that terrain is muskeg and swamp, or else it's Canadian Shield. I was once quoted a figure for roadbuilding up there at upwards of $1 million per km, so for you I guess that'd be $1.3M per mile.
Fun Fact, in the lower 48 it's impossible to get more than 115 miles from a McDonalds!
Yep, anywhere! http://www.datapointed.net/2010/09/distance-to-nearest-mcdon...
Yep, anywhere! http://www.datapointed.net/2010/09/distance-to-nearest-mcdon...
That’s still an awful lot of miles to travel for that. If I remember correctly Subway has the most locations so probably you can get better food by driving less.
Debatable. See https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54370056
Though I have to confess to like their chicken teriyaki thing from time to time, customized to extra hot ;-)
Though I have to confess to like their chicken teriyaki thing from time to time, customized to extra hot ;-)
Subway being better food than McDonald's is debatable (considering Subway bread is pure sugar and you can get a fresh chicken salad at McDonald's).
As someone who likes a good Italian sub now and then, I'm always a bit impressed just how bad Subway can make its food. I can at least find something I'm OK with at McDonald's (though I probably won't eat a burger). Not Subway.
Quiznos has gone far downhill too.
Firehouse Subs and Jimmy John's are amazing sandwiches but far less available.
Firehouse Subs and Jimmy John's are amazing sandwiches but far less available.
For a historical example of US "rugged individualism", see the lengths Huey P. Long went to just to convince the people of Louisiana that paving roads at public expense wasn't some kind of socialist waste of money.
(Long was clearly a demagogue, but on this particular point I have to agree with him that a reasonable road network is a public good)
(Long was clearly a demagogue, but on this particular point I have to agree with him that a reasonable road network is a public good)
Every bad leader had good policies. I was surprised to hear a member of a tribe in New Mexico telling me great things about Nixon.
There is a major road gap between North America and South America as well: the Darien Gap.
Last I heard there was no plans afoot to build a road across it.
Last I heard there was no plans afoot to build a road across it.
[deleted]
Yah, well. Try parts of Alaska? Same terrain & climate.
There are places in Alaska only accessible by bush plane too.
They're building a new highway from Magadan to Chukotka, which will be 1800 km through some of the most fearsome territory known to man. It will only cover a small portion of the route to Petropavlovsk though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadyr_Highway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadyr_Highway
On a similar note, and for a great read, I highly recommend Ian Frazier's "Travels in Siberia." I found out about it because The New Yorker had published some excerpts from it, and I was instantly hooked. Frazier's writing is both engaging and laugh-out-loud hilarious. It was written several years ago, so things are probably a lot different in Siberia now.
https://smile.amazon.com/Travels-Siberia-Ian-Frazier/dp/0312...
https://smile.amazon.com/Travels-Siberia-Ian-Frazier/dp/0312...
I'll have to find the title, but long ago I recall my parents listening to an audiobook of a polish emigrant (to Switzerland) deciding to go around the northern hemisphere on car. Asia was crossed by driving through Siberia, though I'm not sure if he followed the same land route to Kamchatka as described in the article. This was in the early 1990s, I think it might have been just after dissolution of USSR, and more than once it was his quick talking that helped.
Ultimately, the road trip ended in USA, where highway patrol took offence to his heavily-modified Land Rover or something like that.
Ultimately, the road trip ended in USA, where highway patrol took offence to his heavily-modified Land Rover or something like that.
Romuald Koperski,
A Duel with Siberia.
That is my own translation from the Polish title. It is a phenomenal book, I found it in audiobook format- possibly YouTube, with a great reader. Very engaging, exciting, sometimes funny, and often philosophical.
Unfortunately haven't found it in English, and have contemplated having it translated.
Travels in Siberia is a terrific book, as is Midnight in Siberia by David Greene. Both of those books inspired my own trip through Siberia: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail...
I would also suggest a movie called Derzu Uzala, directed by no other than Akira Kurosawa himself. It's about surveyor and a local hunter. Taking place somewhere in Easter Siberia.
It's a wonderful film, and the book it is based off of is also wonderful [1].
FWIW, both the film and the book take place north of Vladivostok in the Sikhote-Alin Mountain range and along the coast of the Sea of Japan. It reminded me of the Pacific North West in the USA and Canada, but it was just foreign enough and a little bit different to make it seem incredibly magical. For example, you would have brown bears and eagles, but you might also see Siberian Tigers. You could meet an indigenous hunter, like Derzu Uzala, but you could also meet Russians, Chinese, and Koreans. I second the recommendation for the film, and I'd also highly recommend the book.
[1] https://smile.amazon.com/Dersu-Trapper-Recovered-Classics-Ar...
FWIW, both the film and the book take place north of Vladivostok in the Sikhote-Alin Mountain range and along the coast of the Sea of Japan. It reminded me of the Pacific North West in the USA and Canada, but it was just foreign enough and a little bit different to make it seem incredibly magical. For example, you would have brown bears and eagles, but you might also see Siberian Tigers. You could meet an indigenous hunter, like Derzu Uzala, but you could also meet Russians, Chinese, and Koreans. I second the recommendation for the film, and I'd also highly recommend the book.
[1] https://smile.amazon.com/Dersu-Trapper-Recovered-Classics-Ar...
Pretty amazing. It's one thing to cobble together some 6-wheeled vehicle and then drive it around the block once, it's a completely different story to build that vehicle and depend on it with your life for 2000 miles where there's no one and nothing around.
That makes me think: How did they cover 2000 miles without anyone around? Did they carry enough gas for the whole trip or there actually is something along the way?
Article says,
> The year before, the team spent a significant amount of time traveling east by boat to coastal settlements dotted along the Sea of Okhotsk, dropping off fuel and supplies to support their upcoming journey.
> The year before, the team spent a significant amount of time traveling east by boat to coastal settlements dotted along the Sea of Okhotsk, dropping off fuel and supplies to support their upcoming journey.
I recommend "Long Way Round" on AppleTV. Ewan McGregor and his friend Charlie ride motorcycles from London to Magadan. Episodes 7-8 are on the Road of Bones -- it's insanely difficult, even for military trucks.
Here is the 6-wheeled Kamaz 4310, which gets windshield-deep in water trying to cross a raging river: http://bestride.com/news/the-kamaz-that-saved-ewan-mcgregor-...
If you want a small virtual taste of what it's like taking trucks like the Kamaz 4310 through mud, swamps and flooded areas, the game Mudrunner is on Steam and features plenty of sticky off-roading and old Soviet iron.
Ostensibly the game is just about driving logs from one place to another, but it's the journey itself that makes the game. The mud physics are quite good,m and you'll certainly end up needing both all-wheel drive, diff locks and a healthy amount of winching to get around. The physics model isn't perfect for on-road driving and the diff locks are not super realistic on hard surfaces, but it's certainly the best off road simulation I've tried.
Taking an old truck on road tires slowly through mud and fording a river with water up to the windshield, while towing a garage trailer to unlock a remote service station is an odd kind of excitement, completely different from the high speed shenanigans in most driving games.
A controller is an absolute must, you have to be surprisingly delicate when feathering the throttle to navigate sticky mud. Full throttle just spins the tires and gets you hopelessly stuck.
Ostensibly the game is just about driving logs from one place to another, but it's the journey itself that makes the game. The mud physics are quite good,m and you'll certainly end up needing both all-wheel drive, diff locks and a healthy amount of winching to get around. The physics model isn't perfect for on-road driving and the diff locks are not super realistic on hard surfaces, but it's certainly the best off road simulation I've tried.
Taking an old truck on road tires slowly through mud and fording a river with water up to the windshield, while towing a garage trailer to unlock a remote service station is an odd kind of excitement, completely different from the high speed shenanigans in most driving games.
A controller is an absolute must, you have to be surprisingly delicate when feathering the throttle to navigate sticky mud. Full throttle just spins the tires and gets you hopelessly stuck.
A 2kW hair dryer seems a bit out of place - the Russian for hairdryer (фен) happens to also mean a regular fan. I can’t fathom what you would do with a huge diesel-powered fan either, but at least it might make a bit more sense than a hairdryer?
On a complete side note - people can sometimes have some luck reading Cyrillic if they pretend it’s Greek. In the case above - phi, eta, nu - is roughly how you pronounce it - fen.
On a complete side note - people can sometimes have some luck reading Cyrillic if they pretend it’s Greek. In the case above - phi, eta, nu - is roughly how you pronounce it - fen.
The "hairdrier" was probably a joke or slang, as in a "heatgun is a big hairdrier". "Фен" doesn't mean "regular fan", it's "hairdrier", despite sounding very similar.
As several folks pointed out, I was wrong with the translation. Evidently my family who are proper Russians have been humoring my half-correctness. Sorry for the incorrect info above everyone!
I did learn that фен can actually mean other kinds of hair dryer-like heat guns (from https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Фен). I assume that’s what these folks used to heat various components.
I did learn that фен can actually mean other kinds of hair dryer-like heat guns (from https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Фен). I assume that’s what these folks used to heat various components.
Why does a 2kw hair dryer seem out of place? For a hair dryer you'd strongly prefer more power now to get it done quickly, so all the cheap best selling hair dryer models are 2kw (e.g. as amazon shows at https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=hair+dryer), it's pretty much the default power level for a hair dryer, and many hair dryers (intended for hair, not for warming up engine blocks) have more than 2kw. I'd interpret the "diesel-powered" as they likely have a diesel generator for electricity.
In USA the default seems to be 1.85kw (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hair+dryer) possibly because 2kw appliances are trickier for the 110v wiring.
P.S. I'm also surprised by the assertion that "the Russian for hairdryer (фен) happens to also mean a regular fan", as IMHO it does not, a regular fan would usually be called вентилятор, not фен. Фен means either a hair dryer or (as строительный фен) a heat gun for construction work.
In USA the default seems to be 1.85kw (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hair+dryer) possibly because 2kw appliances are trickier for the 110v wiring.
P.S. I'm also surprised by the assertion that "the Russian for hairdryer (фен) happens to also mean a regular fan", as IMHO it does not, a regular fan would usually be called вентилятор, not фен. Фен means either a hair dryer or (as строительный фен) a heat gun for construction work.
It's not about the power, it's about the fact that a hair dryer seems like a weird item to take on such a journey. However, the comments on the article(if they can be trusted) clarified that they meant a heat gun for fixing equipment.
A 2kw hair dryer might be good for warming engine blocks and other frozen components.
Cyrillic is at least partly derived from the Greek alphabet, yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script
> Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet, including some ligatures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script
> Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet, including some ligatures.
It’s probably a joke about a diesel fan heater, blows hot air and sounds a bit like a hair dryer. Common in yachts and bigger camper vans.
Ah, this was a delightful escape. I've scarcely left the city limits since March of last year, and this is food for the soul right now; thanks for sharing.
I recently drove right around Africa - 54,000 miles through 35 countries, basically around the entire coastline. I have a bunch of videos from the trip [1] and I've just published a book about it too [2]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQGUz0Z97Y&list=PLNiCe5roBX...
[2] https://amzn.to/3pnVKu6
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQGUz0Z97Y&list=PLNiCe5roBX...
[2] https://amzn.to/3pnVKu6
Never once I thought I will find this kind of content at HN. I am just now up to 9/53 on your youtube series, and I think if you get a pro editor to polish up everything this can easily be turned into a really good show, maybe some tv or channel will ask for rights. I feel like theres loads of potential in commercializing this if you edit it correctly.
Thanks!
Do you have any leads on how to do that?
I was toying with the idea of making a series and selling/pitching to Netflix. I have thousands of hours of HD footage that isn't in the YouTube vids...
Do you have any leads on how to do that?
I was toying with the idea of making a series and selling/pitching to Netflix. I have thousands of hours of HD footage that isn't in the YouTube vids...
I dont really know any editors at all to be honest with you, but I could easily see this to be super popular on youtube or netflix or NatGeo or anything of the sorts if edited well. Maybe do an "Ask HN" thread and explain this? Or go to some youtube forums and try to find an editor? I think theres perfect content and I am up to 32 episode, but a bunch of times the episodes are not transitioning well and I find myself confused whether it is the right episode. Also, the beginning with the intro is too long and repeated, and you could for sure make the vids longer, probs 10-20 mins per episode. Sometimes the voice is different, sometimes the camera is too shaky, but with good editing you could definitely make this into a clear storyline, but I think you would need a great editor that knows how to make this. Maybe shoot some emails to a bunch of channels and explain this to them, they might sign a deal or something and do the editing too. I am really not familiar with this industry, but I watch loads of shows and youtube channels so I can definitely say it needs some polishing. But I really love it! Also, if anything, your show would 100% convince me to buy a Rubicon more than any car ad Ive ever seen!
Thanks very much!
Absolutely I agree 100% on your feedback on the vids I have posted. I edited those while I was on the road in Africa, and I did the best I could.. but it's certainly not "high quality" !
.. I'll keep digging and see if something more can come of it!
and haha, it's good to know my trip would convince you to buy a Jeep :)
Absolutely I agree 100% on your feedback on the vids I have posted. I edited those while I was on the road in Africa, and I did the best I could.. but it's certainly not "high quality" !
.. I'll keep digging and see if something more can come of it!
and haha, it's good to know my trip would convince you to buy a Jeep :)
At times I was amazed what the Jeep was able to handle haha. Also another suggestion, I think putting edits of engaging with the locals or other people on your journey is really interesting!
Also check this channel out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPKnOyG5zI&list=PLPtu9cNe7f...
Also check this channel out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPKnOyG5zI&list=PLPtu9cNe7f...
I loved how you just kept working on building the home-on-wheel project to make your dream real. Do you have any other routes want to visit during/after COVID?
Absolutely, I'm working hard to make another big one happen in mid 2021.
Before Africa I drove Alaska to Argentina - theroadchoseme.com/expedition-overview
Before Africa I drove Alaska to Argentina - theroadchoseme.com/expedition-overview
Watched a few episodes tonight - well done, I'm hooked!
Dan, I really have to add another comment, THIS IS GREAT!
Wow, amazing! How did or didn't covid change your journey?
You might like "the long way down" or "the long way round". Sounds like this expedition would have been cool as a mini series too.
There are many excellent youtube videos of people doing long solo hikes through beautiful lands. Those can also be a nice escape, especially while having a lunch break "at work" (at home).
"welding using daisy-chained car batteries" this is hardcore
It's really not.
Using car batteries for various types of welding is common hobby practice
Using car batteries for various types of welding is common hobby practice
Something tells me most hobbyists are not doing their car battery welding on-the-fly in -60F weather in the middle of Sibera with the stakes of failure being freezing to death though.
I inferred that he was simply saying the fact of using chained car batteries for welding is hardcore, which I obviously think is not as I've seen it done by many people in many places.
As for the situation in this context though - sure, that could be said to be hardcore.
As for the situation in this context though - sure, that could be said to be hardcore.
You're right, car batteries are a very accessible source of high-current DC power. It's especially common for budget DIY spot welding.
It is, it was likely some big thing, like strut support, not small hobby things like jewelry.
Arc welding structural steel with lead-acid batteries is well-established among hobbyists. Here's somebody who reinforced their truck bumper using six 6-volt golf cart batteries, jumper cables, and filler rod, in 2008:
https://www.instructables.com/Golfcart--Welder/
https://www.instructables.com/Golfcart--Welder/
First thing I thought of was Jeremy Clarkson and the red truck they used for some arctic trip. They also had snapped stuff on the truck but they had a complete film crew off screen to help out.. but stil.
Being into motorhomes I always have this dream of a future where there is a bridge across the Bering Strait and one can drive from the US to Europe through a friendly and welcoming Russia on a well maintained highway system.
This would of course be in some sort of electric motorhome with amazing range and good charging infrastructure along with high speed cellular or satellite internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing
This would of course be in some sort of electric motorhome with amazing range and good charging infrastructure along with high speed cellular or satellite internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing
Does anybody know what the difficulties are of building a road in the tundra? Will concrete just break due to the seasonal changes in temperature? Is it that it's possible but the amount of building material would enormous?
I kind of expected Russians and Canadians to be the experts of building roads or train tracks in those conditions.
I kind of expected Russians and Canadians to be the experts of building roads or train tracks in those conditions.
It is better to drive in Siberia through the wilderness, because the roads in Siberia are cursed:
„The road is treated as a memorial, as the bones of the estimated 250,000 - 1,000,000 people who died while constructing it were laid beneath or around the road.“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R504_Kolyma_Highway https://youtu.be/oo1WouI38rQ
„The road is treated as a memorial, as the bones of the estimated 250,000 - 1,000,000 people who died while constructing it were laid beneath or around the road.“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R504_Kolyma_Highway https://youtu.be/oo1WouI38rQ
Great book by Louis L'amour, "Last of the Breed". Escaping and walking across Siberia to North America. One of L'Amour's better books.
A comment from Russia here: I just wish they would have chosen a more interesting destination to reach by car - it's fairly simple to get to Petropavlovsk by plane. There are many other smaller hidden gems across the country where you can only get using a prepped car, thus for me the trip to Petropavlovsk looks a bit like an overkill.
I remember seeing a documentary a long time ago called Overland to America that documents similar travails, including a failed attempt at driving across the Bering Strait in one of these things: https://www.arktoscraft.com/
Amazing read, lots of hacks involved. Taking lots of different car parts, engines, transmissions, drive shafts, etc and constructing a unique car and then being able to have the tools and skills to repair them in the most remote and toughest place in the world. Very nice, hacker news indeed.
I recommend a novel called Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips that is set on Kamchatka and a good amount in Petropavlovsk. It is very much not a wilderness survival book, but more of a mystery and social commentary book.
Really nice page design. Pictures load instantly with preloading, keyboard shortcuts (forward/back/esc). (Story is great too.)
Sounds like the computer game mud runners was inspired by a similar story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz