Probably fake, but if it's true, people don't know what they don't know.

To a whole lot of people mechanical devices border on magic. The gas goes in the hole, you push on the pedal and the car moves. That's literally all they know. They don't have any idea how an internal combustion engine works, much less an electric motor. They've spent their time learning things that are more important to them.

I'd hazard a guess that, apart from Bill Gates, the top billionaires are clueless regarding this stuff.

Hell, many race car drivers don't know much about it, they just know how the car feels.

If you know the four-stroke engine cycle--intake, compression, ignition, exhaust--, you're way ahead of 95% of people. Add to that how a camshaft controls valve timing and you might as well be a mechanical genius.