On the first day, man discovered the wheel. The second day was the time when man put together the first four-wheeled contraption. [...] On the fifth day, man commands the animals to “power” his vehicle. On the sixth day, man places the internal combustion engine inside a car. However, man didn’t use the seventh day to rest from his work. You see, he just wasn’t pleased by what he had created.
Yes, the car had come a long way from the unsafe, inefficient bond between four wheels it started out in life as, but things were still pretty basic and raw, with the epitome of refinement inside an automobile still relying solely on mechanics.
So, what did man do in the seventh day? Well, the question is incorrect, as man only started trying to accomplish something in the seventh day - asking computers to take over control and creating some sort of a master-blaster, a mechanical beast with an electronic brain.
The computers only had limited access to a vehicle’s technical resources at first, but here we are in 2011, with electronics having taken over the auto world.
Forget the iPhone-ist “there’s an app for everything” slogan. We, in the auto industry, have an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) for everything. Want to blink while inside a car? Be prepared to receive assistance from a dedicated system...
Electronics work as you are away from your car, when you enter, start and drive it, turn it off or use any function it has to offer.
Basically, the metallic bits and pieces are surrounded (in 3D, that is) by an infinity of microchips that use instructions stricter than martial law. However, this is not necessarily an unfortunate pathway.
Contemporary cars offer so many benefits thanks to the use of electronics. We’re talking about assets that cater to needs belonging to so many categories. Of course, there are the obvious things, such as driving safety. Nowadays, you just can’t imagine driving without being nursed by ABS, ESP and BAS. Unless you're obsessed with cars, like I am and you like to feel the undiluted spirit of a chassis and that sweet feeling of having to countersteer to keep the back end at home.
However, you really can’t refuse the presence of electronics inside - well, not literally - your engine. The array of sensors and computers make sure that a powerplant is running in optimal conditions, that it can give you power and not be affected by the way in which you abuse its throttle.
So, you can’t live without electronics. And frankly, you don’t want to. But, and this is the “but” that changes the life of this editorial forever, since we are talking about the digitization of cars, why can’t we, thedrivers users, have anything to say in the process?
Since the mechanical hardware, the sensors and the computers are already there, why can’tdrivers owners be allowed to play with their cars?
Many vehicles come with a “sport” button that controls stuff ranging from controlling the backlight of you instrument cluster to playing with your car’s every technical bit, transforming it from beauty to beast and back, depending on the nature of the car.
Unfortunately, this usually has predefined settings and thus, in some cases, when you acquire a performance vehicle, you end up in unpleasant situations, such as having to select between a mode that’s too soft and one that will extinguish every bit of comfort in that car, making it impossible to use everyday.
There are also other cases in which the settings are so close to each other that you can’t even feel the difference between them - I like to call this placebo driving. Of course, there are also systems that come with multiple levels of hardcore-ness, which allow a car to have an answer for any question the driver might ask, but these are very rare and usually packed in the same bag as a terrifying price tag.
But what if automotive producers took a peek at the motorsport world (many of them already live there) and then at the gaming universe (there are also a lot of carmakers that collaborate with game developers) and realized that they could allow us to set up pure cars in the best way that suits every driver’s personality.
Of course, we are talking about a limited target audience here, as not everybody wants to spend time changing a car's settings, but the whole point is to give drivers of performance cars this possibility, and in this niche the percentage of those who want to tweak their rides is much, much higher.
There are several ways in which an automotive producer could do that. The first one that comes to my mind is somewhat similar to the memories used by electric seats. You could run on the factory stock “standard” or “sport” modes, or you could create your own set(s) of settings.
Of course, I made things seem simpler than they would actually be, but this is not a mammoth task. Every aspect that needs special attention, such as the fact that many drivers who would want to do this don’t have a clue about the consequences and thus could create settings that would drastically reduce a vehicle’s active safety, can be tackled relying on nothing more than common sense. The solution for the aforementioned issue: limitations. You should only be allowed to play on a limited field. But I’m already stating the obvious here.
It would be so nice to be able to tweak your all-wheel-drive system in order to bias it towards understeer or oversteer, your engine map in order to become on and pedal response in order to be able to adapt the machine to your mood, the way in which your transmission changes gears, so that your back and your adrenaline-hungry brain can finally get along and the list could go on forever.
Not in the mood for pushing buttons? No problem, you’ve already thought about that yesterday, when you created that “personal default” mode, or you could just hit the factory standard one.
Wait, wait, I see BMW there in the back with its hand up. What is that Bavarians? Yes, I know, you tried to make steps on this road with the previous generation M5 and it generated critics for being too complicated. A lot of automotive journalists looking to bring the spectacular out went “Why are there so many buttons? I just want to sit in it and drive it fast, that’s all!”.
Ahem... please allow me to answer: Just make things a little bit simpler, throw in predefined settings that really work and ignore those who don’t understand that not all performance car drivers are the same.
Many of the aforementioned pathways of playing with your car’s tech bits are already offers, but you have to turn to tuners to receive such gifts. Why does the industry have to wait for so long to make this a stock feature, like it did with LED daytime running lights (and this is just one example)?
All the pieces of this puzzle are already in our cars. It just needs to be solved by carmakers and a public with an open mind.
Yes, the car had come a long way from the unsafe, inefficient bond between four wheels it started out in life as, but things were still pretty basic and raw, with the epitome of refinement inside an automobile still relying solely on mechanics.
So, what did man do in the seventh day? Well, the question is incorrect, as man only started trying to accomplish something in the seventh day - asking computers to take over control and creating some sort of a master-blaster, a mechanical beast with an electronic brain.
The computers only had limited access to a vehicle’s technical resources at first, but here we are in 2011, with electronics having taken over the auto world.
Forget the iPhone-ist “there’s an app for everything” slogan. We, in the auto industry, have an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) for everything. Want to blink while inside a car? Be prepared to receive assistance from a dedicated system...
Electronics work as you are away from your car, when you enter, start and drive it, turn it off or use any function it has to offer.
Basically, the metallic bits and pieces are surrounded (in 3D, that is) by an infinity of microchips that use instructions stricter than martial law. However, this is not necessarily an unfortunate pathway.
Contemporary cars offer so many benefits thanks to the use of electronics. We’re talking about assets that cater to needs belonging to so many categories. Of course, there are the obvious things, such as driving safety. Nowadays, you just can’t imagine driving without being nursed by ABS, ESP and BAS. Unless you're obsessed with cars, like I am and you like to feel the undiluted spirit of a chassis and that sweet feeling of having to countersteer to keep the back end at home.
However, you really can’t refuse the presence of electronics inside - well, not literally - your engine. The array of sensors and computers make sure that a powerplant is running in optimal conditions, that it can give you power and not be affected by the way in which you abuse its throttle.
So, you can’t live without electronics. And frankly, you don’t want to. But, and this is the “but” that changes the life of this editorial forever, since we are talking about the digitization of cars, why can’t we, the
Since the mechanical hardware, the sensors and the computers are already there, why can’t
Many vehicles come with a “sport” button that controls stuff ranging from controlling the backlight of you instrument cluster to playing with your car’s every technical bit, transforming it from beauty to beast and back, depending on the nature of the car.
Unfortunately, this usually has predefined settings and thus, in some cases, when you acquire a performance vehicle, you end up in unpleasant situations, such as having to select between a mode that’s too soft and one that will extinguish every bit of comfort in that car, making it impossible to use everyday.
There are also other cases in which the settings are so close to each other that you can’t even feel the difference between them - I like to call this placebo driving. Of course, there are also systems that come with multiple levels of hardcore-ness, which allow a car to have an answer for any question the driver might ask, but these are very rare and usually packed in the same bag as a terrifying price tag.
But what if automotive producers took a peek at the motorsport world (many of them already live there) and then at the gaming universe (there are also a lot of carmakers that collaborate with game developers) and realized that they could allow us to set up pure cars in the best way that suits every driver’s personality.
Of course, we are talking about a limited target audience here, as not everybody wants to spend time changing a car's settings, but the whole point is to give drivers of performance cars this possibility, and in this niche the percentage of those who want to tweak their rides is much, much higher.
There are several ways in which an automotive producer could do that. The first one that comes to my mind is somewhat similar to the memories used by electric seats. You could run on the factory stock “standard” or “sport” modes, or you could create your own set(s) of settings.
Of course, I made things seem simpler than they would actually be, but this is not a mammoth task. Every aspect that needs special attention, such as the fact that many drivers who would want to do this don’t have a clue about the consequences and thus could create settings that would drastically reduce a vehicle’s active safety, can be tackled relying on nothing more than common sense. The solution for the aforementioned issue: limitations. You should only be allowed to play on a limited field. But I’m already stating the obvious here.
It would be so nice to be able to tweak your all-wheel-drive system in order to bias it towards understeer or oversteer, your engine map in order to become on and pedal response in order to be able to adapt the machine to your mood, the way in which your transmission changes gears, so that your back and your adrenaline-hungry brain can finally get along and the list could go on forever.
Not in the mood for pushing buttons? No problem, you’ve already thought about that yesterday, when you created that “personal default” mode, or you could just hit the factory standard one.
Wait, wait, I see BMW there in the back with its hand up. What is that Bavarians? Yes, I know, you tried to make steps on this road with the previous generation M5 and it generated critics for being too complicated. A lot of automotive journalists looking to bring the spectacular out went “Why are there so many buttons? I just want to sit in it and drive it fast, that’s all!”.
Ahem... please allow me to answer: Just make things a little bit simpler, throw in predefined settings that really work and ignore those who don’t understand that not all performance car drivers are the same.
Many of the aforementioned pathways of playing with your car’s tech bits are already offers, but you have to turn to tuners to receive such gifts. Why does the industry have to wait for so long to make this a stock feature, like it did with LED daytime running lights (and this is just one example)?
All the pieces of this puzzle are already in our cars. It just needs to be solved by carmakers and a public with an open mind.
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