When you stop to consider how complex the task of driving a vehicle actually is, it’s rather surprising that there aren’t a lot more accidents and fatalities than we already have. Despite this, we keep adding more things for the driver to do on the road and designers have struggled to find a way to integrate everything into the human machine interface (HMI). Having watched the struggles of automotive designers to develop a usable in-vehicle HMI, technology giants Apple and Google have now stepped into the breach with their own solutions to the problem in the form of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
When Alan Mulally took the reins as CEO of Ford Motor Company in 2006, a key element of his strategy to revive the struggling century-old automaker was to dispense with any brands under the corporate umbrella that didn’t carry the founder’s name. During his tenure he found buyers for all of the European luxury brands that his predecessors had acquired including Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Volvo was the last to go, with China’s Geely Group finally closing the deal in August 2010. While production was never interrupted, the brand’s rebirth really only began this year with the launch of its first all-new product, the second-generation XC90.
The week of January 7, 2007 was a hugely important preview of the future of cars and how we would interact them. In the span of three days, there were three major product announcements in three cities that all seemed distinct at the time but the convergence is now becoming clearer every day. The week kicked off with General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz revealing the original Chevrolet Volt concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Later that same day, then future Ford CEO Mark Fields joined Microsoft CEO Bill Gates on stage at CES in Las Vegas to announce the SYNC connectivity system. Finally, two days later Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed the world the iPhone at Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Each of those three products has evolved significantly in the last eight years and with each passing day we get closer to the fusion of them all, potentially in an Apple car. While that latter product is still likely years away from being announced, touchscreen smartphones are now ubiquitous with more than two billion in use around the world. They are so prevalent that we now expect to be able to use them anywhere and everywhere including behind the wheel. While plug-in vehicles currently represent only a tiny fraction of the world’s vehicle parc, they too will likely one day dominate and with the addition of autonomous capability our vehicles may well become nothing more than a place to consume content while being moved around.
In recent years, many critics have accused Honda of losing its way. The lightweight, fun-to-drive cars that helped build the Honda reputation from the 1970s through the early 1990s had given way to increasingly bland cars devoid of character. Chief of among the models that seemed to suffer was the Civic. First launched in 1973, the Civic wasn’t Honda’s first American model, but it really gave the brand momentum that picked up significantly a few years later with the debut of the Accord. The most recent Civic which debuted in 2011 seemed to epitomize everything wrong with the brand. Honda heard the complaints and tried to address them for generation 10 that goes on sale in November. However, hearing complaints and adequately resolving them are two different things and only time behind the wheel would tell us if Honda has been successful.
As we roll into the 2016 model year, General Motors is finally about ready to put its 2009 bankruptcy behind it as it completes the launch of a full lineup of post-reorganization vehicles. In addition to all-new vehicles designed and developed in this decade, GM is also rationalizing its in-vehicle infotainment options which had become fragmented over the past four years. For Chevrolet, that means there will basically be two levels of infotainment under the MyLink brand.
Dr Gill Pratt – Executive Technical Advisor, Toyota
At a press conference in Palo Alto, California today, Toyota announced a new collaborative research program that will focus on development of artificial intelligence and automation control systems. Under the auspices of Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC), the $50 million development program will pull in researchers from Toyota, Stanford University and MIT to help develop the systems that will be required to power increasingly autonomous cars. The effort will be led by Dr. Gill Pratt who is joining Toyota as an executive technical advisor. Pratt previously served as the program manager for the DARPA robotics challenge which brought the world the “big dog” robot from Boston Dynamics.
3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 adds cooled EGR for model-year 2016
Since its introduction in 2009, the Pentastar V6 lineup has been an enormous success for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with more than 5 million units sold to date. The Pentastar in 3.6, 3.2 and 3.0-liter (the latter in China only) displacements is offered in everything produced by Chrysler larger than the 200. For the 2016 model year, Chrysler is rolling out the most substantial updates yet for this award-winning engine. At least one aspect of the revised engine points to the upcoming EPA Tier 3 emissions standards.
Most of the revisions to the V6 are pretty straightforward and increasingly common. Two-step variable valve-lift and variable cam-phasing with a range expanded from 50 to 70 degrees will help to reduce pumping losses and contribute to improved torque. Also aiding the torque output is a bump in compression ratio from 10.2 to 11.3:1.
The fuel injectors now have double the holes, going from four to eight for improved atomization of the fuel. However, Chrysler has opted not to follow the latest trend and continues to inject fuel into the ports upstream of the valves rather than directly into the combustion chamber. While this will certainly help keep costs down, during a preview of the engine, FCA powertrain engineering VP Bob Lee explained that they opted to stay with port injection for emissions reasons.
The primary benefit of direct injection is the charge cooling it provides when used in combination with the higher pressures from turbocharging. Conversely, spraying fuel directly into the combustion chamber complicates mixing air and fuel, especially when the engine is cold. This can often lead to higher emissions of particulate matter, aka the soot commonly associated with older diesel engines. Automakers have addressed the problem on diesels with particulate filters that capture the soot and then periodically burn it off at high temperatures.
Beginning in 2017, EPA Tier 3 standards will tighten the limits on particulate emissions for all light duty engines. If you take a look at the area around the tailpipe of many cars with direct injected engines, especially Fords with EcoBoost, you may notice black stains that are typically a sign of particulate emissions. In the coming years, we will like see many, if not all gasoline direct injected engines adopt particulate filters similar to those found on diesels.
Given the experience that many customers have had with mediocre real-world fuel economy on turbocharged GDI engines and rumblings of further adjustments to the way EPA label mileage values are calculated to reflect this, sticking to a normally aspirated engine could work to FCA’s long-run advantage.
Other changes to the Pentastar that will help its emissions performance is the addition of a cooled EGR system and a switch to 100 millijoule high-energy ignition coils. Efficiency will be aided by a two-stage variable displacement oil pump and smaller diameter crankshaft journals for reduced friction. The block casting has been reworked with new ribbing that helps improve noise, vibration and harshness while at the same time reducing the amount of material for lower weight. Despite the 13 pounds added for new hardware like the valve-lift adjusters and EGR, the net weight of the finished engine is only up by two pounds.
Auto stop-start is already included in several Pentastar applications like the Jeep Cherokee and Ram 1500 but it will be standard with all applications of the revised engine. Overall, the revisions to the second-generation Pentastar should boost fuel economy by about six percent. The second-generation Pentastar launches this fall in the Jeep Grand Cherokee and will roll out to other applications over the next year or so.
Nine years ago, I was beginning my career as a professional writer just as a little Silicon Valley startup was emerging from stealth mode to introduce its first product. Taking its name from one of the greatest engineers and inventors of all time, Nicola Tesla, that company reignited the pursuit of battery electric vehicles with a heavily modified Lotus Elise chassis packed with 1,000-pounds of lithium ion cells. It would take another two years before paying customers would finally take delivery of the first Roadsters and another four after that before Tesla would finally deliver its first completely in-house developed product, the Model S. During a recent trip to California I finally got my chance to drive the insanely fast Tesla Model S P85D.
When I was in my high school auto mechanics class learning how to rebuild carburetors, grind valve seats and set the valve clearances on a Triumph TR7, I was already dreaming about being an engineer in the industry and developing new cars. One of the most important lessons I learned from those years in the garage was that any engineer should be required to assemble and service a product before it goes into production. It’s become apparent to me over the past 35 years that few if any engineers have ever picked up a wrench. Fortunately, Honda seems to have heard that message and implemented it in the design of the 2016 Pilot crossover.
Last October, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk stepped onstage in Los Angeles to announce the new P85D edition of the Model S and a new semi-autonomous driving feature called AutoPilot. Surprisingly, Musk told the audience that, starting two weeks prior to the event every Model S coming off the line was already equipped with the package of radar, camera and ultrasonic sensors that would enable AutoPilot. The engineers were still working on the software and it would debut in 2015. It’s now August 2015 and AutoPilot still hasn’t been turned on but the company’s second quarter earnings release did make an interesting mention of the new capability.
When you stop to consider how complex the task of driving a vehicle actually is, it’s rather surprising that there aren’t a lot more accidents and fatalities than we already have. Despite this, we keep adding more things for the driver to do on the road and designers have struggled to find a way to integrate everything into the human machine interface (HMI). Having watched the struggles of automotive designers to develop a usable in-vehicle HMI, technology giants Apple and Google have now stepped into the breach with their own solutions to the problem in the form of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
