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Have car manufacturers really technologically advanced at all?

Pollushon

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The 'chip shortage' has been created by car manufacturers. They've shot themselves in the foot. In two decades they have not upgraded from legacy hardware technology. They didn't have to, it's more profitable not to. If you crack open the latest vehicle computers, you won't find the same technology used in smartphones and modern appliances. Since the pandemic most of the producers of the legacy hardware shut down those factories and they have no intention of firing them back up. Vehicle manufacturers have nothing to use and are pilfering certain lines for others

You only need a pocket calculator to run the various systems in the latest vehicles. Basic sensors, some aggregation, computation and infotainment. There's absolutely nothing complex about the technology in a vehicle when you stop and think about it. It's had zero impact on Tesla because they already used modern hardware tech and just had to tweak the software to suit different chip providers. Modern manufacturers will have to start from scratch
 

bluehighway

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Audi reports about 7,000 semiconductor devices in its high-end models, and it turns out about 4,000 cars every day. A failure in the range of one part per million equals 24 defective cars per day. For BMW, which uses about half as many electronic components but manufactures 10,000 cars every day, that equates to 54 defective cars.
“Electronics will account for 35% of the cost of a car soon,” said Michael Schuldenfrei, corporate technology fellow at Optimal Plus. “And with autonomous driving coming, by 2030 PWC thinks it will be 50% of the cost of the car. If you think about where the cars are today and where they’re going to be tomorrow, this is a problem.”
Not sure id be keen on the future planned brake by wire....not sure id be happy producing 20-50 defective cars a day...lol
https://semiengineering.com/reliability-becomes-the-top-concern-in-automotive/
 

hademall

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Hahaha, I should probably qualify that by saying compared to a modern electronic device like a smartphone or high density infrastructure
It doesn’t matter, anything electronic has got me bamboozled.
 

J_D 2.0

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Audi reports about 7,000 semiconductor devices in its high-end models, and it turns out about 4,000 cars every day. A failure in the range of one part per million equals 24 defective cars per day. For BMW, which uses about half as many electronic components but manufactures 10,000 cars every day, that equates to 54 defective cars.
“Electronics will account for 35% of the cost of a car soon,” said Michael Schuldenfrei, corporate technology fellow at Optimal Plus. “And with autonomous driving coming, by 2030 PWC thinks it will be 50% of the cost of the car. If you think about where the cars are today and where they’re going to be tomorrow, this is a problem.”
Not sure id be keen on the future planned brake by wire....not sure id be happy producing 20-50 defective cars a day...lol
https://semiengineering.com/reliability-becomes-the-top-concern-in-automotive/
So imagine how cheap cars would/could be if they were still just freaking cars! I’ve often wondered this and I suspect that cars would be half the price they are now if it wasn’t for all the technoligical advancement built into them.

Don‘t get me wrong, I’m not being a luddite and saying all technological advancement is bad but we do collectively pay a high cost for having it.

One of the problems with capitalism (and us as consumers) is the insistence that everything be at the bleeding edge of technological advancement when something half as complicated and half the price can do the job with 95% of the effectiveness of the expensive item (I’m looking at you iPhone).

How many carbon emissions are embodied in all those superfluous computer chips designed to keep idiots from killing themselves (AEB, lane departure warning, etc) or to make that new iPhone 5% faster then the previous one? Was it worth it? For most people its categorically not worth it from a purely objective perspective.

I bought my secondhand SSV as it was the least technologically advanced VE V8 I could get (no DOD, no cam phasing, no automatic gearbox to fuk up). Unfortunately the vast majority of people spending top dollar on new cars want the most bells and whistles money can buy, most likely because it’s predominantly not going to be their problem when something goes wrong because they will be dumping the car onto the next sucker before the warranty ends.

This makes sure unwanted technical complexity is baked into the cake for everyone in the secondhand market. Then you have the suckers for punishment who insist on buying complexity that breaks down all the time just because of the badge it’s got on it (I’m looking at you Jeep and Land Rover owners)!
 

Skylarking

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I’d look at it another way… The greatest technological improvement in modern vehicles are within improved manufacturing tolerances, reduced ICE emission from better control systems and especially the improvements made in material sciences over the years…

The first two are good for us and our cars while the third is a real annoyance as manufacturers can now engineer plastics to be like a countdown clock and disintegrate at a specific point in time. Design effort is spent to make things look good but break… That way your car will look ratty and you’ll want to buy a new one :rolleyes:

As for electronics, quite frankly they are reliable. When they do go wrong the issue of identifying the faulty component can be rather problematic as dealer service just wants turnover and their technicians can lack skill…

So confusing a service technician’s ineptness for unreliable electronics is probably the reason people think modern cars are unreliable. IMO this is false assertion and we should blame where it’s due and that’s at the hands of the parts swapping service technician :p
 

Skylarking

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I suspect that cars would be half the price they are now if it wasn’t for all the technoligical advancement built into them.
We live in a capitalist market so the price you pay is simply the price a market can bear. And the price you pay isn’t related to cost of manufacture + reasonable markup… Further, what gets sold is what people buy… If people didn’t buy these technological buz boxes, the market would be filled with different vehicles…

Sadly gadgets sell as that is what people look for..

I’d love a modern basic car without the heavy systems integration (HVAC and infotainment) and electric everything (seats, mirrors, windows, aircon, etc)…, just good quality driveline, suspension and brake systems. The car would be a heck of a lot lighter as well… I can buy my own to infotainment crap at a later date if I choose… All the driver aids and other rubbish I don’t want. A simple 2 box hatchback design of old with electric or ICE drive train and no other smarts stuff… Such simplicity doesn’t exists anymore... The market has left us behind so I guess we are not profitable for them…
 

Pollushon

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I would argue manufactures don't build any form of diagnostic and troubleshooting logic to their electronic systems beyond the basic odb/can capabilities. One because it's not cost effective for a throw away and two because it's legacy kit that has limitations. I don't have such problems with more complex systems I work with, they have built in methods to zero in on issues and resolve them very accurately
 

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As well as the comfort and safety plus the fact that (apart from maintaining tyre pressures, checking the oil and topping up the widscreen washer fluid) it requires no effort from me between services, I absolutely love the HUD on my ute projecting my speedo reading at a focal point just past the front of my bonnet. It means I don't have to keep pulling my sight from the road ahead and focus down on the dashboard to check my speed. Road, speed, road, mirrors, visual loop. Best automotive technological advancement ever! On the opposite side of the coin, driving an old car with no modern technology I spend more time doing a visual loop of the instrument cluster. Road, speedo, oil pressure, water temperature, road, mirrors, visual loop.
 
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