The cars of today are miracles of advanced engineering, with mechanical systems that make driving a pleasure. But the electronics are what provide the safety, refinement, fuel economy and reliability that motorists expect.Imagine a world in which your car recognises you as you approach it, unlocks the doors, turns off the immobiliser and adjusts the suspension stiffness, the driver’s seat, all the mirrors, the steering column and so on to your exact requirements – all before you open the door.
The car may even know the type of instrument panel you prefer, switching the digital display from ’60s-style chrome and plastic to a more sporty look in which the tachometer looms large. The in-car entertainment system will lock onto your favourite radio station and the navigation system will switch itself on, ready to ask you where you want to go. All you need to do to drive away is to press the starter button.
The data to make this happen will be held on a smart card, perhaps programmed by your dealer, which sits in your wallet alongside your Visa, Access and American Express cards. Your spouse and other designated drivers will have their own cards and their own programmed vehicle setup preferences. The car key – a symbol of car ownership since the beginning of the century – will have become a historical curiosity.
Actually, we now have the technological capabilities for all these features, either as delivered systems or advanced prototypes. Of course, they will first be available to consumers as expensive options on luxury cars, but before long they will become commonplace. The pace of research and development in the automotive industry is breathtaking, especially in electronics.
Car designers now talk in terms of the “kilowatt car” – meaning the amount of electrical power needed to operate on-board systems, most of which are electronic. Today’s average family car has many times more computing power on board than the spaceship that took Neil Armstrong and his crew to the moon.
Technologies that drivers actually notice as they drive their cars represent only a small part of the electronics revolution in the auto industry. Less obvious but equally remarkable are advances in safety systems and engine management, all of which are designed to make vehicles less dangerous to their occupants, other road users and the environment. Along the way these advances also make the cars more pleasurable to drive.

Progress in panel technology
Within the auto cockpit, the instrument panel (IP) and instrumentation design took a big step into the future when Visteon, the Ford-owned components and systems group, revealed a remarkable IP display that drivers can program to fulfil their desires along with a flat-wire technology that replaces the conventional harness.
The IP display is based on a reconfigurable projected image. Instead of a conventional instrument cluster, the display panel allows drivers to display information according to their needs and preferences – by changing the size, colour and even the content of the panel.
Displays can include such video information as a backseat baby watcher or a view from the rear bumper that will aid in parking. The same screen can, alternatively, display in-car navigation maps and data and Internet information.
At the core of Visteon’s super-integrated cockpit is a magnesium support structure that incorporates both mechanical and electrical component mountings, air-bag housing, heat sinking and electrical shielding with the flat-wire technology that replaces the harness and virtually eliminates conventional connectors.
Combined signal and power flat cables – not unlike those inside a computer – are simply folded into a U shape, allowing user-specified “plug and play” modules to be simply inserted where their corresponding power and signal tracks match and mate.
Also on the horizon are in-car personal computers and all that they mean in terms of communications capabilities – Internet access, voicemail, email, infrared data links, messaging services, navigation systems and audio and video technologies as well as enabling technologies.
Leading these technologies are automotive “tier one” suppliers such as Delphi Automotive Systems and Visteon.
Delphi has two demonstration vehicles. One, the Saab 9-5 Personal Productivity Vehicle (a joint venture with Saab), showcases systems that could be produced today. The other, a Chevrolet Blazer Network Vehicle, is more futuristic in its capabilities. The Personal Productivity Vehicle exploits Auto PC, which uses the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, and was developed at Delphi Delco Electronics’ Mecel AB subsidiary in Göteborg, Sweden.
Through speech recognition, a driver can send email, obtain turn-by-turn directions through a global positioning system (GPS), ask for traffic and weather conditions, locate a restaurant or hotel and operate the stereo system. A cellular modem connection can summon roadside assis-tance and receive email and Internet information while an infrared data link allows data to be transferred from handheld PCs.
Delphi’s Network Vehicle involves partnerships with IBM, Sun Microsystems and Netscape and demonstrates new wireless computer connectivity to mobile applications. IBM’s Java-based technology makes possible real-time data-streaming over a wireless network.
Visteon’s vision, called ICES (information, communication, entertainment, safety and security) uses Microsoft’s Auto PC operating system with Intel architecture microprocessors. Voice-activated controls are a key interface to multimedia features that include traffic information, turn-by-turn navigation, email, voicemail, Internet access and more. Incorporated into this will be RESCU (remote emergency satellite cellular unit), said to be the first factory-installed system to combine GPS technology and the cellular phone network to help drivers in distress. RESCU activates automatically upon airbag deployment.

Advances in safety
Advanced safety systems in cars have evolved alongside “driver appeal” features and often share some of the same technologies, in particular the advanced sensors that are so numerous in today’s vehicles. Examples include wheel sensor bearings, accelerometer sensors that measure yaw rate and solid-state gyroscopes. Variously, they have crucial roles in ABS, traction control, navigation systems, airbags, pyrotechnic seat-belt tensioners and electronic stability control. Then there are the proximity sensors and radar used in occupant sensing (for variable airbag deployment), parking assist systems and, just being introduced, adaptive cruise control (where a safe distance is maintained between you and the car in front, dependent on speed and road conditions).
One of the challenges is getting these sensors to share information where their applications overlap. This problem is now being addressed by a brand new system of smart sensors and actuators called Intellek – a brand-new technology from Delphi. Intellek integrates sensors, microprocessors and a bus interface in a single “smart” module, allowing sensed and processed data to be shared with multiple vehicle systems.
Engine management systems, or ECUs (electronic control systems), are crucial systems in a world where high pressure is being exerted on the car industry from the environmental lobby. Enormous strides have been made, largely by replacing the carburettor with injection systems and now with gasoline direct-injection systems (GDI) along with advances in injectors, spray patterns and the introduction of catalytic converters. ECUs monitor and control these systems.
Some of the latest thinking in the ECU area was introduced by Rover in its new 75 model launched in Geneva in March 1999. The company’s successful relationship with Motorola in developing the MEMS series of engine management systems for the K-series continues in its latest iteration.
The Rover hardware, refined by Motorola, features a newly developed circuit board bonded to the aluminium outer casing. This not only improves heat transfer, but also allows Rover to integrate more powerful multifunctional chips into the system. For example, controllers that previously would have included four injector drives and a separate oxygen sensor now are integrated into one unit. Bonding the chips to the outer casing reduces connections, increasing reliability, while the rigid board decreases flexing during assembly and service life.
This policy, decided jointly by Rover and Motorola, diverges from BMW thinking, which tends towards packaging the electronics in a remote box away from the hostile under-bonnet environment. Rover maintains that this has cost implications and that its own innovative approach with Motorola represents an industry lead. It may well set a standard for future engine management systems.

Roger Bishop
editorial director of European Automotive Design
photo Roger Stenberg