The neglected demands that autonomous driving and consumer expectations required from brake design

摘要

Autonomous driving is changing the paradigm of the automotive industry and aiding the development of a new generation of automotive vehicles. For the past several years, the automotive industry has been engaged in a battle against high tech companies (new entrants). To this point this battle doesn't have a real winner. The tech companies have suffered due to their lack of understanding and knowledge of the complexity to design and manufacture a car, including all government requirements for certification and handling of the consumer complaints. Due to this lack of experience they are incurring excessive quality and warranty costs. The warranty threshold ratio in consumer electronics is very different to the ratio in the automotive industry. However the automotive vehicles are moving closer to being a consumer technology product and is where the automotive industry is paying the toll. The industry is facing the reality of not investing in the identification and creation of certain resource capabilities to perform the integration between mechanical systems and sensors (i.e. sensor fusion). The lack of a strong bond between industry and academia to assure all technical and professional skills are well adapted to new technologies has also played a role. Key competencies identification and creation of new industrial clusters to address alternative technologies or consumer shifting is not a luxury but a necessity to assure the industry does not enter in a deadly spiral similar to the rail industry in the 19 century.