Transportation News and Headlines

AMC Canceled The First Car With An Onboard Computer At The 11th Hour

The 1957 AMC Rambler Rebel was slated to debut Bendix’s Electrojector, an analog‑computer‑controlled electronic fuel‑injection system that could shave half a second off its 0‑60 time. Engineers battled reliability issues, especially cold‑weather starting below 50 °F, and the program was cancelled before any production models were built, though a single show‑room prototype may have been equipped. Bendix abandoned the project in 1960 and licensed the patents to Bosch, which introduced the first successful EFI in the 1967 Volkswagen Type 3. The missed launch denied AMC a pioneering EFI advantage.