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What social/economic/technological trends do you think will have the greatest
impact on car design in 2018?
Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the automotive industry.
Over the next ten years, Vehicle Manufacturers will invest substantial
sums in developing technology to reduce CO2 emissions. There will be fiscal,
legal and social pressure on VMs to meet ever stringent emission targets.
Rising fuel prices will add to the pressure to improve fuel economy. Increased
safety requirements will also influence design.
While the industry works to solve the climate change challenge, our customers'
appetite for ever increasing features, performance and premium attributes
will not diminish. This creates an exciting challenge for engineers to
satisfy customers and get large CO2 improvements.
In what ways will the powertrain technology differ?
There will be an increase in the use of hybrid technology and further
technological enhancements to petrol and diesel engines. Multiple gearing
and twin clutch will become commonplace. There will be widespread use
of bio-fuels.
What materials will vehicles use – can we expect serious
alternatives to steel to emerge?
There will be further use of lightweight material like aluminium,
high strength steel and composites.
What technologies will be making the big advances in safety
in 2018?
Pre-collision and accident avoidance technology will advance.
Passive safety regulations & consumer testing are expected to expand
to cover a larger range of impact types with some harmonisation of standards
across the world. Pedestrian protection systems will become the norm with
pre-impact sensors triggering active protection systems like deployable
bonnets and airbags.
The biggest changes however will be in the area of active safety. Cars
will automatically brake and steer to avoid an accident. In the future
there will be car to car and car to infrastructure communication that
will assess risks and allow time for gradual intervention.
How will automotive engineers' working lives be different? What
skills/specialisms will be important?
Even more work will be done in the virtual world with ever improving
CAE tools and simulators. Electronic controls will be a scarce resource
required to support the ever escalating needs for more technology.
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