Less time ago than you'd believe, the only piece of electronic technology in a car was the radio, and in less time than you'll believe more of the car than you can imagine will involve even more electronic wonders.
That point is made clear by the Cadillac STS SAE 100, a technology concept vehicle that General Motors put together for the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit this week.
For the average driver, the concept car is a techno-dream of safety, convenience, safety, performance, comfort and safety again, sometimes offering technologies you didn't know you wanted until you heard about them. Even if some of them seem silly to one driver, they may be the precise answer to the needs of someone else. The capless fuel system may seem like a toy, for example, but not if you have arthritis and can't unscrew the traditional fuel cap.
The car pays homage to the SAE's 100th anniversary by ''serving as a working laboratory that will aid engineers in developing future production vehicles.'' That is the belief of Jim Queen, GM's vice-president of global engineering and general chair of the 2005 SAE World Congress.
''We have challenged our engineers to take the best of today's vehicle technologies and integrate them with promising future technologies to demonstrate how they will function together in a real-world driving environment,'' says Queen.
Accordingly, GM worked with 38 suppliers to integrate 50 different technologies into the STS SAE 100, ranging across safety, chassis, powertrain, electrical and comfort and convenience categories. Nine are currently on the production 2005 Cadillac STS, 22 are in production somewhere other than the STS, and 19 have never been in production but might one day.
Queen makes the point that the STS SAE 100 is ''much more than a dream team of technologies, as engineers will use it to document how the various technologies interface with each other and how they can be applied to future production vehicles.''
Queen says that ''Our goal with this vehicle was not simply to see how many different technologies can be incorporated into one vehicle. We want to learn how a variety of relevant current and future technologies can be made to function harmoniously while enhancing the total driving experience.''
Functioning harmoniously is a polite way of saying these sophisticated technologies need to play well with others and not make the car's system crash as often as a computer's does.
They would also help the car itself crash less often, thanks to various developments on the active safety front.
''This industry has done an excellent job of using technology to help protect people during a crash,'' says Queen, but ''effective crash prevention has always been a challenge because most crashes involve some driver error.''
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| Cadillac STS SAE 100 (photo : General Motors) |
For the average driver, the concept car is a techno-dream of safety, convenience, safety, performance, comfort and safety again, sometimes offering technologies you didn't know you wanted until you heard about them. Even if some of them seem silly to one driver, they may be the precise answer to the needs of someone else. The capless fuel system may seem like a toy, for example, but not if you have arthritis and can't unscrew the traditional fuel cap.
The car pays homage to the SAE's 100th anniversary by ''serving as a working laboratory that will aid engineers in developing future production vehicles.'' That is the belief of Jim Queen, GM's vice-president of global engineering and general chair of the 2005 SAE World Congress.
''We have challenged our engineers to take the best of today's vehicle technologies and integrate them with promising future technologies to demonstrate how they will function together in a real-world driving environment,'' says Queen.
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| Cadillac STS SAE 100 (photo : General Motors) |
Queen makes the point that the STS SAE 100 is ''much more than a dream team of technologies, as engineers will use it to document how the various technologies interface with each other and how they can be applied to future production vehicles.''
Queen says that ''Our goal with this vehicle was not simply to see how many different technologies can be incorporated into one vehicle. We want to learn how a variety of relevant current and future technologies can be made to function harmoniously while enhancing the total driving experience.''
Functioning harmoniously is a polite way of saying these sophisticated technologies need to play well with others and not make the car's system crash as often as a computer's does.
They would also help the car itself crash less often, thanks to various developments on the active safety front.
''This industry has done an excellent job of using technology to help protect people during a crash,'' says Queen, but ''effective crash prevention has always been a challenge because most crashes involve some driver error.''