The reality is that the additional wiring, while it is mostly for the excess accessories, is much more economical and more reliable than the system using a multiplexed control line.
Do you remember that prediction, the 42 volt system and a single data bus, and the while car only needing three wires? The very best part of that idea is that it did not happen! For starters, we normally don't get 42 volts from three 12 volt batteries in series. So calling it 42 volts immediately was a poor call from the very start. And the main reason for the three batteries was to support the pre-heated catalyst idea, which came from somebody who was totally detached from reality. You can read about it in the archieves of Design News from a few years back. The stated excuse was to support all of the many new electrical things in a car, but clearly that reason was not valid.
I did come across a very interesting writeup about some researcher inventing a far more compact high-value capacitor made from polystyrene. That discovery could wind up being a game changer in a number of areas. Have you come across this yet.
If you were able to explore the process at the auto companies you would find one group trying to remove distractions and make the vehicle safer, and you would find another group striving with all their might to add features and gimmicks in order to obtain product differentiation. Unfortunately that group often prevails, since they are linked to marketing and upper management, while engineers are linked to production and reliability. Since none, or very few, at a lower level, of the decission makers in an auto company are engineers, it is simple to figure out who prevails most of the time. Of course, safety does not sell, except Volvos, and marketing and money are close companions, and even useless features sell. So you can easily guess the winners.
I avoided naming names to protect the guilty. They know who they are.
I see your point, William K. Even though the number of physical buttons has been dramatically reduced on this display, the number of icons is still a distraction. As hard as automakers are trying to reduce distraction -- and I believe they are trying hard -- they could reduce distraction far more by eliminating center console screens altogether.
I can see this one being very distracting to a driver. How about: LOSE THE ICONS, and use large text, probably with a different tree path for the selections. But still it is way to busy for a driver. Stuck in a traffic jam it may be OK, but at 70MPH it will be a source of dangerous distraction. I can see that it has lots of features, but they will distract the driver.
This is a clean display and I like the haptic feedback, especially on the temperature, but i wonder how easy the screen would be to use while driving. Although i am sure it would become easier to use over time, it seems as if it could be distracting in the begining.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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