Detroit got the world on the road but BYD will inherit the earth, says Bloomberg Opinion's David Fickling. SYDNEY: Germany’s Carl Benz might have invented the automobile, but it’s the United States that got us to drive them. The relentless export of American cars and car culture put the world on the road in the 20th century. By the 1960s, Ford Motor had plants in almost every major European country, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Israel, Peru, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, and