Oldsmobile produced the first car equipped with a fully automatic transmission.
Oldsmobile introduced General Motors’ Hydra-Matic transmission in 1939 for the 1940 model year. It was the first mass-produced fully automatic transmission designed for passenger cars, and Oldsmobile became the GM division to launch it in production vehicles.
The Hydra-Matic used fluid coupling and planetary gearsets to change gears without requiring the driver to operate a clutch pedal. It was offered as a roughly $57 option and initially appeared in Oldsmobile Series 60 and Series 70 cars. Its introduction made driving simpler and helped establish the automatic transmission as a major alternative to the manual gearbox.
The wording can cause confusion because earlier systems, including GM’s Automatic Safety Transmission, were semi-automatic and still required clutch use in some situations. Buick later introduced Dynaflow, Chevrolet offered Powerglide, and Cadillac adopted Hydra-Matic for 1941 models. Those developments followed Oldsmobile’s pioneering production launch.