How Buick Beat BMW to the Blinker: The Surprising History of Turn Signals

Think back to every time you've flicked that turn signal stalk since you got behind the wheel. For daily commuters, it's a motion repeated dozens of times a day—hundreds of thousands over a lifetime. We do it on autopilot, barely registering the blinking lights until someone forgets to use them.

That's when the jokes start, especially about certain German luxury brands. But here's the twist: the first factory-fitted turn signals weren't a German invention at all. They came from an American brand you might not expect: Buick.

Long before BMW drivers became punchlines, Buick made history in 1939 by equipping its entire lineup—the Special, Roadmaster, Century, and Limited—with standard electric turn signals. S. manufacturer to make blinkers standard across the board. These early signals replaced hand gestures and mechanical semaphore arms that popped out from the car's body.

The evolution didn't stop there: by 1965, the Ford Thunderbird introduced sequential turn signals, creating that swooping effect now common on modern vehicles.

Buick didn't stop with turn signals. The same brand that gave us the first standard blinkers also pioneered the overhead-valve engine in 1904 with the Model B—though credit went to an overlooked bicycle maker named Walter Lorenzo Marr. Decades later, Buick introduced the first production touchscreen in the 1986 Riviera, a monochrome Graphic Control Center that handled climate, radio, and diagnostics.

And in 1956, the Centurion concept car previewed the backup camera, sending a TV-style feed to a dashboard screen. Technology wasn't ready for production, but the idea was there.

Today, turn signals are evolving again. Advanced driver-assistance systems now activate them automatically during lane changes. Volkswagen has filed patents for steering wheel-mounted controls, though Tesla's backlash over removing stalks shows drivers aren't ready to let go completely.

For now, the humble stalk remains. But whether it's a Buick, a BMW, or anything in between, those blinking lights still tell other drivers where you're headed—a simple innovation that changed the road forever.