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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad , Nov. 27

Slip into a modern day luxury car and you can see how the design of the steering itself has undergone dramatic changes to pack a lot of features that can be accessed with touch buttons mounted on it.

Coupled with this, onboard technologies and offboard features such as vehicle telematics and GIS systems, which make for better driving experience, are undergoing changes.

These features onboard are getting lot more complex and are akin to mounting several processors.

It is estimated that in some of the Mercs and BMWs, the cost of technology component alone in these cars could go up to $10,000-20,000 depending on the features packed.

Significantly, trends point towards creating a common box with the capability to reconfigure and upgrade the existing system.

Mr Boris Vittorelli, Automotive Segment Manager of semiconductor company ARM, who is on an India visit, told Business Line that over the last decade, the content of electronics and technology in automotives has increased dramatically. Novelty and functionality could be the next big wave in car electronics.

There is hardly any system in the car that is not controlled electronically be it engine, brakes, suspension or lighting.

"As one of the largest supplier of chips to the automotive industry, we see a need for consolidation of a trend towards integration of various devices within the car. That is functions that are dispersed on microprocessors will gradually be integrated into one big box."

The other important aspect is the effort to integrate security features into the existing systems.

Active safety features are now being incorporated into the new cars that roll out from assembly lines wherein sensors feed inputs into the car on the move.

These sensors also help the driver take decisions ahead of what he could potentially perceive and visualise, thereby becoming an active enabler.

More Stories on : Cars | Consumer Electronics

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