Car designers wrestle with reducing weight

The CD player competes for space with other technology in cars, like this 2011 Chevy Volt, shown Oct. 7, 2010. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press

By Brent Snavely

Detroit Free Press Business

Michael Arbaugh is looking forward to the day when automotive designers get rid of CD players.
Doing so would eliminate about five pounds and would free up critical space on the center stack where technology is offering other choices, said Arbaugh, chief designer for Ford interiors.

Behind the interface, a CD player competes for space with heating and cooling units and other technology.
“That’s oceanfront property when you are talking about the center stack,” Arbaugh said. “I think anybody under 30 is probably using all MP3 devices. They don’t buy CDs.”

To the average person, five pounds might not seem like a lot for a car that weighs 2,000 pounds or more.
But for designers like Arbaugh, knowing when to eliminate something like a CD player is a critical decision — especially as automakers race to meet tougher fuel economy standards.

For nearly 30 years, the government’s fuel economy standards did not change significantly. Now by 2016, the U.S. fleet average for automakers must reach 34.1 Miles per gallon, up from 27.5 m.p.g. for passenger cars in 2010 and 23.5 m.p.g. for light trucks. At the same time, automakers must also continue to meet stricter safety requirements and incorporate new communication technology to stay competitive.
Arbaugh was among three automotive designers who spoke today in Detroit at the Automotive Press Association.

Robert Boniface, director of design for Cadillac exteriors predicted that automakers will begin using more carbon fiber in the near future even though it is expensive.

“As a design element, carbon fiber…is a beautiful material,” Boniface said. “It’s lightweight, it is structurally sound — we like it.”

Boniface also predicted the cost of carbon fiber will fall somewhat as automakers work more closely with the suppliers who produce it. Already, carbon fiber is surfacing on vehicles more often as accessories, he said.

“As fuel requirements become more stringent, we are going to have to use it,” Boniface said.

Source (via www.autoblog.com);
http://www.freep.com/article/20120510/BUSINESS01/120510050/1014/rss13

Why Do Subcompacts and Compacts Get Such Similar Mileage?

No longer is 40 mpg only the province of the hybrid.

With four new members from the New York International Auto Show — the Honda Civic, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio and Mazda3 — the crop of 40-plus mpg, non-hybrid gasoline cars available will creep into the double digits by the end of the year. You don’t necessarily have to downsize to get the best mileage: The 2012 Ford Focus SFE will be rated 28/40 mpg city/highway, while the pint-sized Ford Fiesta SFE gets 29/40 mpg. The entry-level Accent gets 30/40 mpg; the Elantra, its larger sibling, is rated 29/40 mpg. The stick-shift Chevy Cruze Eco gets 28/42 mpg, and GM expects the forthcoming Sonic to secure a 40 mpg highway rating.

In most cases, the compact cars are significantly larger, heavier and more powerful than their subcompact siblings. Why then is their gas mileage so similar? At the auto show, I posed the question to automakers and analysts. The simple answer: aerodynamics.

“Keep in mind that technology will help both [highway and city mileage], but not at the same rates,” said Mike O’Brien, Hyundai’s vice president of product planning. “The city number is going to be the bigger difference when you go a class up in car size.”

Conversely, the fight for better highway mileage goes against what O’Brien calls “road load,” a combination of the vehicle’s frontal size, tire friction and drag.

In some cases, it’s actually harder to eke out better highway mileage in a subcompact car, said IHS Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman.

“When you have a B-segment [subcompact] car, it’s very hard to make it aerodynamic, given how short it is and how many of them end abruptly,” Bragman said.

That’s not to say carmakers aren’t trying. Cars like the Accent and Fiesta use technologies commonly reserved for luxury models — a direct-injection engine in the Accent’s case and a dual-clutch six-speed automatic in the Fiesta’s.

At Ford’s auto-show stand, marketing manager Robert Parker noted the incremental nature of this technology.

“Our engineers like to say fuel economy is about hundreds of little things,” Parker said. “All of those hundreds of little things add up to a tenth [of a mpg] here and a tenth there.”

Put another way, major increases in mileage — 30-mpg pickup trucks or 50-mpg commuter cars — will take more than slipstream aerodynamics or six-speed automatics.

“A lot of these countermeasures are low-hanging fruit,” Bragman said. “Long-term, you’re looking at a different powertrain, a different type of propulsion method, to get to the next level of fuel economy.”

The real question isn’t technology, Hyundai’s O’Brien said. “There’s always more technology,” he said. The real question is who will pay for it.

“You can have the cleanest car in the world, but unless someone buys it, you can’t be clean,” he said. “It’s really a tipping-point discussion.”

Source;
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2011/04/why-do-subcompacts-and-compacts-get-such-similar-mileage.html

Honda's New Hybrid Information Site; Honda Words

The site details the storied history of Honda's gas-electric vehicles including the original Insight which was the first hybrid mass produced for the U.S. market. The "Words of Hybrid" are all connected, but they float around whimsically as you move your cursor through the page.

The new Insight takes center stage on the page with numerous photos and specs. There are tabs for the future CR-Z and Jazz (which U.S. readers would call the "Fit") hybrids, but little information is provided about either model. Regardless, the new site is worth a visit.

Source;
http://world.honda.com/HybridWorld/index.html

Via;
http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1018649_hondas-self-loving-new-website--words-of-hybrid

New BMW iDrive Proof Electronics Engineers are Evolving

It's good to see what type of tech that other manufacturer's are developing, especially BMW. There are a lot of features that are just becoming common (drive by wire, ESC, Navi, etc....) that have been in the luxury market for years, so it's not out of this world to think that a variation of this tech will come our way someday.
By Drew WinterWardsAuto.com, Nov 5, 2008 9:32 AM

The Convergence Transportation Electronics Association conference always is full of talk about breakthroughs, but the intense three days of 2008’s conference last month in Detroit revealed a very different type of breakthrough made by the automotive electronics community.

This breakthrough is the kind you might have on a psychoanalyst’s couch.

In one exhausting 72-hour period full of exhilarating technology and mind-numbing acronyms, it became apparent that more than 6,000 very smart engineers were acknowledging the existence of Joe the Consumer (JTC).

More importantly, they were agreeing this slightly dense Everyman deserves to play a major role in the development of future automotive electronic systems. Bingo.

Not that they would put the schlub in charge of anything important, nothing like that. But engineers now agree that JTC has to be able to operate electronic systems easily and intuitively, or at least without getting so frustrated with the human/machine interface that he pops blood vessels in his head.

They realize now that, no matter how brilliantly designed an HMI may be, JTC does not want to spend an hour pouring over an owner’s manual to understand the fundamental logic of how it works.

JTC is a simple guy. He wants to push a button and make something happen, like starting the car or turning on the radio. He doesn’t want a barometric pressure reading or a Spanish lesson while he’s doing it.In other words, JTC does not always see more electronic features as added value. Especially when the add-ons make operation of the original features, such as turning on heated seats, more complicated.Designers must enhance the user-friendliness and reliability of the HMIs to eliminate distraction, Ralph Bruder, of Germany’s Darmstadt University of Technology says at Convergence. “Sometimes, assistance features can confuse drivers even more, leading to information overload,” Bruder says.

The evidence the message truly has sunk in can be seen in BMW’s new iDrive HMI, shown off at Convergence and reborn on the '09 3-Series and 7-Series.

Once one of the most relentlessly criticized devices ever created, the new iDrive now arguably is the best HMI available.

The key to the new system is it features seven separate buttons and/or rocker switches to provide fast and direct access to core functions and menu prompts. That means JTC no longer feels like a rat trapped in an electronic maze when he jogs the iDrive knob in the wrong direction while trying to change his radio station presets.

Entering information such as street and city names for navigation directions also is simpler. On this latest version of iDrive, BMW and its suppliers clearly spent quality time with JTC during development.

The user-friendliness of the HMI – not the number of functions or features – is where the real competitive advantage lies, engineers now agree.

That could lead to incorporating technology into the HMI that responds to gestures, rather than touch or speech, says Bruder. It’s most notable application is the Wii wireless controller from video game maker Nintendo.

JTC likes that idea, as long as he can edit out some of the gestures he makes while driving.

Source;
http://wardsauto.com/commentary/idrive_electronics_evolving_081105/

Canadian Driver: Should electronic stability control be mandatory?

Found a good article on how the Electronic Stability Control (Vehicle Stability Assist in Honda lingo) does and how important it is.
By Paul Williams

Ottawa, Ontario - After learning of another fatal crash in my area -- this one involving a small pickup truck and its four occupants, three of whom died -- I knew that the vehicle subject vehicle, a Ford Ranger, wasn't equipped with Electronic Stability Control (ESC). I know this because ESC is not standard equipment on the Ranger, nor is it offered as an option.

Would ESC have helped? Results from surveys and research all over the world are confirming that ESC has a significant impact on the outcome of crashes involving loss of control (which account for nearly half the road crashes in Canada). According to Transport Canada, "Preliminary analyses of data for calendar years 2000 to 2005 indicate that ESC could have prevented approximately 30 per cent of fatal and injury crashes that involved loss of control, if all vehicles in Canada had been equipped with ESC." That would amount to a reduction of nearly 1,000 fatalities.

Research from the U.S.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) supports these findings, confirming that, "ESC reduces the risk of all single-vehicle crashes by more than 40 per cent-fatal ones by 56 per cent." The IIHS estimates that up to 10,000 fatal crashes (in the U.S.) could be avoided each year if all vehicles were equipped with ESC.

In the United Kingdom, the Department of Transport concludes, "That ESC equipped vehicles are involved in 25 per cent fewer fatal road accidents." From the Swedish Road Administration, "For serious and fatal loss-of-control type crashes on wet roads the effectiveness was 56.2 ± 23.5 per cent and for roads covered with ice or snow the effectiveness was 49.2 ± 30.2 per cent. It was estimated that for Sweden, with a total of 500 vehicle related deaths annually, that 80-100 fatalities could be saved annually if all cars had ESC."

So yes, it could have helped.

What is ESC? It goes by a number of names, depending on the manufacturer (DSC for MINI and BMW; AdvanceTrac for Ford; Vehicle Stability Assist for Acura), but basically, as the name suggests, it's an electronic system that helps to keep your vehicle stable. The principle is that sensors in your vehicle detect lateral movement (skidding, sliding sideways, entering a corner too quickly, changing lanes too abruptly). These sensors cause the brakes on individual wheels to be selectively applied in an attempt to maintain desired forward motion. Sometimes, in conjunction with braking, the throttle may be modulated as well.

Electronic Stability Control is remarkably effective, and can give the driver a fighting chance of maintaining or regaining control when the vehicle and its occupants are at risk. In many cases, as the research shows, it will enable the driver to avoid a crash.

What ESC is not (although it's connected to these systems) is anti-lock brakes (ABS) or traction control (TC). Indeed your vehicle may have both those technologies, but still may not be equipped with ESC.

And ESC can't be added, or "retrofitted." It's installed when the car is built; integrated into the vehicle's electronic and mechanical components. Surprisingly, given that ESC has been available for over a decade, Transport Canada reports that only five per cent of vehicles on the road are equipped with ESC, and 60 per cent of Canadians have never even heard of it.

True, new technologies do take time to be accepted, and initially the cost of ESC was high. But even with costs falling significantly (Volkswagen offers it in their Golf for only $450), consumers may not understand the true value of ESC. And as long as ESC is not available on many vehicles, or is only available as an extra cost item (if you can find an example so equipped), consumers will lack the opportunity to benefit from this excellent technology.

That being said, the IIHS reports that ESC is currently standard equipment on 40 per cent of new vehicles in the U.S., and is available at extra cost on another 15 per cent. Furthermore, according to Canadian safety advocate, Glen Nicholson, "The US [has] fast-tracked a regulation making ESC mandatory in all cars and light trucks starting with 55% of 2009 models, 75% of 2010 models, 95% of 2011 models, and 100% of 2012 models."

In Canada, Transport Canada is currently, "Examining the need to require ESC on all new light vehicles sold in Canada." It will propose that ESC will be mandatory equipment on vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2011. That would include pickup trucks.

Currently however, the availability of ESC on Canadian new vehicles is not necessarily the same as in U.S vehicles - Canadian models are often equipped differently. Many experts suggest ESC should be standard equipment on all vehicles sold, and CanadianDriver supports this view. You can help too by only purchasing vehicles with ESC. Its availability in your next vehicle should be a deal-breaker. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Although the operation of ESC is similar from one vehicle to the next, each manufacturer, perhaps confusingly, has a different name for it. Only the Korean manufacturers Hyundai and Kia actually refer to Electronic Stability Control as "ESC." And some have traction control systems with similar names -- BMW's Active Stability Control, or ASC, for instance -- which are not the same as ESC. What you want is listed below (courtesy of Transport Canada), alphabetically by manufacturer.

Here's the link;
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/pw/electronic-stability-control.php