The Hindu : Business : Cars or computers on wheels?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 07, 2005

Business

Business

Cars or computers on wheels?

Anand Parthasarathy

Average family cars have 20-70 microchips on board

BANGALORE: If you thought that your car was a mechanical contraption to take you from here to there, you may have to think again quite soon. Worldwide, about one-third of the cost of a car is taken up by electronic systems. And 90 per cent of this goes into computer software. Average family cars have anything from 20 to 70 microchips on board. The programmes, which run the systems, are longer and more complex than what went into the Apollo space mission that took men to the moon. Delegates at an auto electronics summit organised by the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) here on Wednesday heard that as cars available to Indian customers became more international in look and feel, they would increasingly resemble computers on wheels: Electronic Control Units or ECUs already optimise fuel injection; adjust inside temperature; control locking and safety systems and provide entertainment and communication. As the geographic software for Indian roads becomes available, car computers will soon provide voice-guided navigation and street-finding services.

Complex network

IBM executives Ramesh Srinivas and Jayashree Ravichandran said that in the near future, the fly-by-wire systems used for commercial aircraft navigation would have their car counterparts in the `drive-by-wire' systems.

Indeed, the car has become such a complex network that they are talking of a Car Area Network or CAN, much as computer engineers speak of the Local Area Network or LAN.

M. Lakshminarayan, joint managing director, MICO, said luxury sedans and high-end sportsters even today boasted of 75 or more ECUs, over 100 electric motors — and two km of cabling.

When fuel cell-driven cars came on the road — as they must in 5-10 years — electronics on board would hit 50 per cent of the value, the speakers agreed.

And what's in it for India? Long before we drive these high-tech versions, our engineers will be leveraging their edge in computer technology to provide vehicle automation systems to the world. For, this software and hardware sector was chugging along at a healthy 12 per cent annual growth, experts at the summit felt.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business