There are two main topics consuming most of the R&D budgets in the automotive industry:
- Assisted, and ultimately automated, driving
- Reduction of energy consumption and pollution
The first item is viewed as an electrical problem. Cameras, radar, and lidar sensors are combined to provide the inputs vehicles need to make informed decisions about the future.
The second item is viewed as a powertrain problem. Companies compete to develop more efficient internal combustion engines while also looking for ways to implement electric motors.
But the two topics aren’t as isolated as they might seem.
Until we’re all driving electric or fuel cell electric vehicles, there’s only so much that can be done to improve the mechanical efficiency of a powertrain. Companies fight and invest heavily to make the smallest incremental improvements in engine efficiency.
But what if we’re smarter about the problem?
What if we can use the vast data now collected by the vehicle to change the way the powertrain operates?
Cameras tell us how close we are to the vehicle in front of us. Shouldn’t they also tell us when to take the foot gas to preserve energy, or when to put an electrical vehicle in regeneration mode?
Services like Waze or Google Maps understand the route to our destination looks like, and the expected traffic along that route. Can’t we use this information in a smart way?
If we know that electric motors are much more efficient than gasoline engines at low speeds, we can store battery power for urban driving rather than wasting it all on the highway. Similarly, we can be smart about how we handle elevation changes. It doesn’t make sense to zoom over a hill just to ride the breaks on the way down when instead we can minimize our speed at the top and recuperate almost all of the energy through regeneration.
And this just scratches the surface. Engine aftertreatment controls can benefit from using smart vehicle technology, heating strategies can be optimized, etc.
Ultimately, the situation highlights an important point – the best innovations typically come when we’re able to piggyback off of other improvements being made around us.
-Brandon