Troy, MI—If you want a glimpse of what's coming around the bend in tomorrow's cars, check out the website of Delphi Automotive (www.delphiautomotive.com).
As the world's largest automotive supplier, with some 16,000 engineers and technicians at more than 30 locations, Delphi is driving innovation in virtually every aspect of cars.
"Our two biggest challenges are meeting the varied expectations of the auto OEMs and staying abreast of what consumers want in cars five and ten years from now," says Andrew Brown, director of Engineering for Delphi.
Under its Nextech program, for example, Delphi is probing technologies that may seem exotic but a decade from now could be standard. Among them:
Safety enhancements. Brown sees these as the top consumer priority, given the growing concerns about "driver distraction." They include such developments as 360-degree collision avoidance systems, adaptive cruise control to maintain safe distances between vehicles, and adaptive restraint technologies that trigger optimum airbag deployment in crashes.
Energy/environment. Among innovations in its Energen program is a belt-driven, stop-start generator that improves fuel economy by 5%. Powerful integrated motor-generators will also allow smaller engines, while maintaining performance, improving fuel economy, and reducing emissions.
X-By-Wire. This family of braking, steering, throttle, and suspension systems relies on a network of wires, sensors, controllers, motors, and actuators to replace the traditional mechanical systems. A side development for these X-By-Wire systems, which will offer increased performance and greater design flexibility, is a shift to a 42V architecture.
Comfort and Connectivity. These run the gamut from a one-touch adjustable steering column and multi-zone climate control to voice recognition systems, "Infotainment PC," and navigation assistance.
"Of course, some of these innovations will be pioneered in luxury cars," notes Brown, "but many will eventually become standard—just as air bags did."
In more than half the cases, Delphi moves ahead on these futuristic technologies without major funding help from automakers. Instead, the company relies on feedback from extensive consumer research, then takes the technology to the car companies for validation.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
15 
