You know cars are faster than horses. But in the early days of automobiles, carmakers had to wage a fierce PR battle to win. Vox's Phil Edwards learned about the early battles between the car and horse. Follow Phil Edwards and Vox Almanac on Facebook for more: https://www.facebook.com/voxalmanac This marketing conflict from the early 1900s may show how a battle between self-driving cars and traditional cars could play out. As we look ahead to a public conversation about the merits of self-driving cars over traditionally driven ones, the horse and car battle may prove to be prescient. New technologies aren't easily accepted — and sometimes even a superior product has to adopt fierce tactics to win. And despite the car's shortcomings, the horse really did create a lot of problems that automobiles could fix. Horse manure was a serious public health hazard; thousands of horses were maltreated (and as many died); and, of course, horses had less acceleration and braking power than the car, resulting in slowdowns and accidents. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/ Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o