How did you learn the inner workings of your business' domain?

This is my three step approach to getting good at anything:

1. consume
2. participate
3. contribute

I'll use my own personal experience (investing) as an example.

First, I started off reading as much information as I could about what the stock market is, what controls the prices, how to read stock charts, what all of the symbols mean, how to analyse company books, etc. Every single thing I could get my hands on.

Then, I started to invest. I'd research companies on my own, buy some shares and follow along. Whether I made or lost money, I'd try to understand why that happened. Did I pick the wrong company, did I sell too late, maybe too early? What could I have done better?

By this point, you have a solid foundational grasp and you start forming your own ideas and principles. This is when you start to contribute to the wider community. Contributing here means adding something that wasn't there before. In my case, my trading theories and, subsequently, my company.

Another, shorter example, would be learning a programming language:

1. read books, get a handle on the syntax and concepts
2. build some applications, each getting bigger and bigger in scope
3. release open source tooling, contribute to projects, find a job, etc

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Now, I don't know the automotive industry. But if I were you, I'd talk to someone who does. Email, call, go to a store, go on Reddit, anything. Ask them what you should be researching. The hardest part, I bet, would be finding that initial thread to pull on.