Cars of today rely more and more on computers, compared to the cars of the past. Technology is getting more advanced and the automobile industry
has always been trying to use that to their advantage. The whole car is becoming a computer, more and more functions that used to be operated
manually are now done electonically. The millions of microprocessors do a great amount of tasks. The engine and parts under the hood power the
car, but its the microprocessors that tell it what to do. You would be surprised in exactly how many functions have something to do
computer. General Motor's remarkable concept car, the Hy-wire. GM may never actually sell the Hy-wire to the public, but it is certainly a good
illustration of various ways cars might evolve in the near future. The Hy-wire has wheels, seats and windows like a conventional car, but the
similarity pretty much ends there. There is no engine under the hood and no steering wheel or pedals inside. The defining characteristic of the Hy-
wire (and its conceptual predecessor, the AUTOnomy) is that it doesn't have either of these two things. Instead of an engine, it has a fuel cell stack,
which powers an electric motor connected to the wheels. Instead of mechanical and hydraulic linkages, it has a drive by wire system -- a computer
actually operates the components that move the wheels, activate the brakes and so on, based on input from an electronic controller. This is the same
control system employed in modern fighter jets as well as many commercial planes.

The computer in your car is actually very similar in function to the computer on your
desktop. The difference is that while your desktop PC is a multifunction machine
capable of word processing, Internet connection, etc., the automobile computer is
specialized to perform only one very complicated function, controlling your car.
The capabilities of the car computer vary widely depending on the make and model of
automobile. In some cars, the computer may control only the fuel and ignition systems
while in others it can also control the temperature in the passenger compartment, the
instrument panel and even the braking system. Let’s look at exactly how the computer
performs some of these functions.
Computers first made their mark in the auto industry in the mid-‘70’s when engineers
were seeking ways to control automobile exhaust emissions. They realized that they
needed a way to more precisely control the introduction of fuel into the engine and
began experimenting with electronic fuel injection. An automobile must operate over a
wide range of conditions from idling at the stop light to full throttle passing acceleration
on the highway. Controlling the fuel flow over such a huge variation in
requirements seemed a tailor made job for a computer. Before fuel injection,
cars used carburetors to control the flow of gasoline. Changing the
characteristics of a carburetor required actual physical changes to the design.
Often making a change to improve performance in one area would have and
undesirable effect on another area. In a computer controlled system,
changing the operation required only a change in program rather than a mechanical
change. Several years of experimentation and improvement led to reliable inexpensive
computer controlled fuel injections systems that significantly improved automobile
performance. Their success with this effort along with the increase in speed and power
of computers encouraged them to try controlling other auto functions in a similar
manner.
It turns out that having more precise control of the ignition system also led to better
performance and control of exhaust emissions. When coupled with high energy
ignitions and spark plugs, they also achieved significant decreases in required
maintenance. As with home computers, the automobile computer continued to increase
in power and speed and decrease in price placing more computer power at the
disposal of the engineers. They responded by developing antilock braking systems,
digital instrumentation, automatic climate control and a host of other computer
controlled features.
But this revolution would not have been possible without advances in many other
fields. In order to perform these control functions, the computer must receive and
output information. On your home computer, you input information via your mouse and
keyboard and receive output from a printer. An automobile computer receives its input
from sensors and sends out signals that control fuel injectors, spark coils or digital

speedometers. As computers were developing there was a simultaneous development
in sensors that greatly improved the quality and reliability of the information input to the
computer. As an example, to control a fuel injection system the computer must know
how much air is entering the engine at any particular time. This can either be measured
directly by an air flow sensor or calculated from measurements of such things as air
temperature, pressure and engine speed. In either case, these pieces of information
are supplied by sensors attached to the engine and connected to the computer. The
computer then calculates the proper signals to send to the fuel injectors that actually
allow fuel to enter the engine. Computer controlled ignition systems require sensors
that measure the engine speed and piston position. The computer then calculates the
precise instance at which to send a signal to fire the spark plug and ignite the gasoline.
Sensors mounted on each wheel send signals to the antilock braking system. If the
computer detects that one wheel is beginning to move more slowly than the rest (in
other words, it’s skidding), the computer signals the braking system to release pressure
on that wheel to stop the skid. It does this on each wheel separately and
simultaneously and it obviously does it much faster than the driver could.
Every function that the computer performs is controlled by a program. These programs
are written by the engineers who design the systems. Unlike the programs on your
personal computer which are stored on disk drives, these programs are stored in
special electronic circuits called ROMs (Read Only Memory). This provides for instant
startup and high reliability.
When the use of computers in cars was first being considered, computer
manufacturers were very confident of success. After all, they had sent computers to the
moon. A series of humiliating failures soon convinced them that this project wasn’t as
easy as it seems. The automobile computer must operate reliably from -40 degrees to
140 degrees. It must be impervious to water, oil, dirt and a variety of other
contaminants. It must not fail and leave the car without brakes or lights or any other
safety related items. It must not malfunction when subjected to electrical interference
from radios or ignition systems and it must start immediately and operate continuously
and reliably under all conditions. These are just a few of the issues that automobile
electronics designers faced. Despite these huge challenges, the computer and
automobile engineers persisted and today’s cars are safer, cleaner and more reliable
than they’ve ever been. And the use of automobile computers is behind most of these
advances.

Cars of today rely more and more on computers, compared to the cars of the past. Technology is
getting more advanced and the automobile industry has always been trying to use that to their
advantage. The whole car is becoming a computer, more and more functions that used to be
operated manually are now done electonically.The millions of microprocessors do a great amount
of tasks. The engine and parts under the hood powerthe car, but its the microprocessors that tel it
l
what to do. You would be surprised in exactly how manyfunctions have something to do
computers.
Automobiles also have become electronic entertainment cocoons for everyone but the driver; bu t
now the driver too gets to play passenger, as the latest automotive milestone is ubiquitous
automated piloting; that is, cars drive themselves in all bu the most exotic or unusual
t
circumstances. Though large metropolitan regions often have highly redundant communications
and control networks embedded in their traffic byways to aid individual automobile guidance, and
also allow smaller, cheaper, and less autonomous vehicles to form the bulk of their native
transport, most autos outside the major city areas are of the more expensive 'standalone' sort,
capable of robust independent navigation all on their own, with only occasional help from
navigational satellites and/or a network of traffic towers located over most developed countries.

Of course, such automated piloting of autos didn't happen overnight, but gradually crept its way
into mainstream autos, with such things as embedded 'governors' that simply wouldn't permit
excess speed to be used casually or unreasonably frequently under certain weather conditions (wet,
icy, fog, etc.) or traffic conditions (tailgating, too frequent high lateral G forces, etc.). Such
governors also eventually came to recognize official speed limits in various metropolitan areas and
major freeways/interstate highways-- thereby placing similar restrictions on plain old speeding.
These governors were 'smart', allowing for some brief spurts of excess speed for normal traffic
adjustment needs, but were also programmed to recognize abnormal speeding patterns. Many
technologies contributed to the success of these governors, such as sophistocated new sensors, and
greater communications between the auto's onboard electronics and the local traffic nets of various
cities and major highways.