Electronics have changed many areas of our lives. The car industry in particular has been transformed by the latest electronic developments. Early car models were purely mechanical machines but electronics now play a huge role in the operation of modern cars. Electronic components are used to build, operate and repair modern vehicles. The industry has swayed towards electronics so much that companies like Apple and Google are in the process of developing their own cars which will rely heavily on electronic components. These are some of the most important ways electronics have changed the car industry.
Car Production Has Changed
The way cars are designed and built has changed dramatically in recent decades. Much of this is down to advances in electronics. Machines are doing jobs which once had to be done manually by factory workers. Everything from car assembly to painting cars is now automated. The machines doing this work are programmed to carry out precise tasks quickly and have replaced the need for many types of factory workers who would have previously assembled most car parts manually.
Increased Fuel Efficiency Using Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI)
Electronic Fuel Injection has replaced the carburetor in many modern car models. This technology supplies power to a car’s engine. The EFI electronically calculates the precise amount of fuel an engine requires. This stops an engine from flooding which could happen with older technologies. Delivering exact amounts of fuel to the engine also prevents fuel wastage and reduces the amount of emissions coming from a car.
Faults Are Found Through Car Diagnostics Tools
The days of only having to use basic tools to fix a car are long gone. Cars have become much more complex machines with many electronic components included in most modern vehicles. Everything from controlling air temperature to emissions are controlled by these devices. With so many electronic components, there has to be a way to check all of them for faults and other problems. Most modern cars can be scanned by car diagnostics tools like the ELM 327 Bluetooth car scanner.
This is a high quality device that is compatible with 99% of cars made today. It includes a processor which is based around the Elm Electronics 2.1 code. The ELM 327 Bluetooth car scanner works alongside OBD software like TOAD (Total OBD and ECU Auto Diagnostics) which you install on a laptop. The ELM 327 Bluetooth scanner connects to the laptop with TOAD and your car. It scans and detects problems with your car and outputs these details to its interface. If a problem is detected, the system tells the user what repairs need to be carried out.
In-Car Entertainment Has Advanced with More Devices Available in Cars
A car has become much more than just a mode of transport. We spend a lot of time in our cars and passengers do too. In-car entertainment has become an important feature in modern cars. The hardware used to deliver audio and visual entertainment is now being customized to function in modern cars.
Advanced audio systems, TV, gaming consoles and computers are becoming more common in today’s cars. This would have been unimaginable only a few years ago but the latest advances in electronics make this possible.
You Never Get Lost Thanks to the Latest Navigation Systems
There was a time when the only navigation system a driver had was a paper road map. The introduction of electronic GPS systems has changed the way we get from one place to another. Modern GPS systems are extremely detailed and remove the problems associated with travelling to unfamiliar locations.
GPS systems receives a signal from GPS satellites that circles the earth. This process identifies the exact location of a GPS user by comparing the time the satellite sent their signal and the time the GPS unit received this signal. The GPS unit is able to calculate its distance from the satellite based on the time difference of the signal. Other satellites are also used in the same way to pinpoint exactly where the GPS user is located.
Once this has been established, the user’s location appears on the GPS screen. When the location of a GPS user is found, the satellites can detect different information about the user’s location including their latitude, longitude, distance from a particular destination, their speed and much more. All of this information is available on the users GPS screen.
Driving Has Become Safer Because of Video Technology
Advances in imaging and video technology has had a huge impact in the motoring industry. More modern cars are being fitted with cameras to help with parking and give drivers a better view of the objects that surround their car at any given moment. Dashboard cameras have also been developed that record events taking place on the road ahead. All these cameras are linked to a main screen. The devices and components used, keep getting smaller which is a result of the huge developments occurring in the electronics industry.
As car manufacturers continue to innovate and evolve, the role of electronics also continues to become more important. Modern car mechanics and motoring experts have to understand how car electronics work as much as they have to understand the mechanical workings of a car. This looks set to continue and electronics will play an even bigger role in the automobile industry as tech giants like Apple and Google looks set to enter this market too.
