eli5 : how did the car phones from 80s and 90s movies work?

Question

eli5 : how did the car phones from 80s and 90s movies work?

In: 5

Answer 1

The first car phones were around in the mid 1940s, and they worked the same way your modern phone works. It transmits over radio to a tower.

Here’s a film from the 1940s showing how mobile telephones work. https://youtu.be/xDy2tHCPdk8