Driven by Science

When Barry Lavette bought a new car a few months ago, he was looking for only one thing: room for his surfboards.

He bought a station wagon, albeit a sporty one. A 1999 Subaru Legacy.

Lavette, a 42-year-old medical technician from West Los Angeles, isn’t a big TV watcher. So he hadn’t seen Australian actor Paul Hogan’s commercials for the Subaru’s all-wheel-drive alternatives to the lumbering sport-utility vehicles and four-wheel-drive trucks that have captured the hearts and minds of so many car buyers in America.

And he didn’t pay much attention when sales manager Debbie Willis at Corona Motors talked about the technologies--such as full-time all-wheel drive and four-channel ABS, or anti-lock braking system--that came standard with the $22,000 Legacy. He was busy measuring the space behind the front seats.

“It [technology] just wasn’t important to me,” Lavette says.

And then he started driving his new wagon.

“I go all over the Santa Monica Mountains, Topanga and Malibu, and the difference was just amazing,” he says. “I didn’t care about it when I was buying, but now I’ll never buy another car without all-wheel drive and ABS. It goes through those twisting roads like it was on rails.”

Lavette, like tens of thousands of other new-car buyers these days, has become a victim of technology, spoiled by the tremendous changes that have been altering the automobile almost as rapidly as advances in silicon chip design continue to improve the personal computer.

Cars and trucks don’t exist in the buy-it-today, see-it-become-obsolete-tomorrow time frame of the PC, but they’re getting there, industry insiders say.

And for much the same reason: electronics technology.

“It is almost scary how far and fast it has all come,” says Dean Benjamin, whose Manhattan Beach-based AutoSource Inc. keeps track of technological developments and their automotive applications.

“It used to take four or five years for a car maker to design a new model or major new feature and bring it to production. Now most are saying they can do it in two years.”

Honda, for example, introduced variable-valve timing in its expensive NSX sports car in 1991. The following year, this race-bred technology was available in the company’s mainstream Civic and Accord. Last year, Toyota installed this fuel-efficient system for continually adjusting the engine’s intake and exhaust valves for optimum performance, in its luxury division’s flagship, the Lexus LS400 sedan. Next year, it will be available on a number of less expensive Toyotas, including the company’s new Echo--a sub-$10,000 compact aimed at first time buyers.

“That’s just two years from luxury to mainstream,” Benjamin says.

That kind of speed is necessary because today’s consumer is no longer willing to wait half a decade or more to see a neat new technology wend its way down the chain from expensive option on a luxury car to standard equipment on mainstream vehicles.

“Car companies are operating in a heinous competitive environment,” says David Cole, director of the University of Michigan’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation. “Consumers are demanding more, and manufacturers have to deliver to keep a competitive advantage.”

They can deliver because of computers and the miniaturization of electronic equipment so that it fits in the tight spaces available on cars and trucks--and because the industry has finally learned to use the new technologies.

“Car makers were staffed with mechanical engineers who didn’t know how to use electronic technology, but now new people, with the right skills, have come in. The skill levels are much higher,” Cole says.

In fact, while consumers are seeing a staggering amount of new technologies in their vehicles, what they don’t see is even greater.

“There are unbelievable things going on in the auto industry in the area of computer modeling,” Cole says. “They can design test, build and drive a new car in the computer before they ever do it in real life.”

This reduces the costs of developing a new vehicle because all the trial and error is done by computer, with no wasted material and manufacturing costs to write off while trying to get it right.

Computers also control the robotic machines that increasingly are used in auto production and are helping engineers develop better ways to bend metal and incorporate exotic materials--plastics, carbon fiber and Kevlar, tough aluminum alloys--into chassis that are stronger and more rattle- and squeak-free than ever before.

“Consumers don’t see all this, but it all benefits the consumer by enabling car companies to customize their products with very short lead times and at much lower costs than in the past,” says Dave Nathanson, head of the automotive consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Detroit.

Some of the fruits of the industry’s new skills are already in the market: brighter headlamps; cleaner, more fuel-efficient gasoline engines; voice-activated car phones that let the driver’s hands stay on the wheel and eyes stay focused on the road; anti-lock brakes that help keep cars from skidding during panic stops; steering wheels that automatically move out of the way when the engine is turned off; seats that remember a driver’s preferred seating position; suspensions that adjust to road conditions and to the weight of the people and cargo in the vehicle; door locks that work by remote; rearview mirrors that dim automatically to minimize nighttime headlight glare.

But there is much more being developed, some of it ready for introduction in the next year or so.

Two years ago, BMW offered a backup warning to buyers of its 7-Series luxury sedans. Ford will soon be installing the same system as an option on its Windstar van. This proximity warning device, first developed by the aviation industry, measures the distance between the rear of the van and objects--people, pets and parked cars--that it is approaching and sounds an alarm when the gap gets too narrow.

Mercedes-Benz will offer a similar but more sophisticated system linked to the throttle. The system, called adaptive cruise control, senses when a car running with its cruise control turned on is drawing too close to a vehicle ahead of it and reduces the speed to maintain a safe distance.

Driver’s seats are already heated in many models, and now some cars offer cooling as well. General Motors Corp.’s Cadillac division offers the option of a seat that gives a lower-back massage.

Lexus and GM’s Chevrolet Corvette already offer so-called throttle-by-wire systems in which an electronic signal rather than a mechanical cable controls the amount of gasoline being fed to the engine when the driver presses on the accelerator pedal.

And under development at several companies that provide brake and steering products to the auto makers are electronic systems that would eliminate scores of complex, costly and weighty mechanical components. And, of course, electric power to move the car or truck itself isn’t all that far away. Electric motors already exist that can rival the typical gasoline engine for power and beat it hands down in a contest of reliability and maintenance. The problem is getting the electricity needed to run the motors.

Big, heavy battery packs with limited range are in use today, but the auto makers are spending billions of dollars to adapt a relatively old principle--the fuel cell--to the automobile. Fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen, and the stumbling block is developing a system of distilling hydrogen that can be made small enough and cost-efficient enough to mount in the engine compartment of a car.

Because economics remains the engine that drives the auto business, luxury cars will remain the platform for introduction of most new technologies because luxury buyers can afford to pay the higher prices typically charged of new products to help underwrite development costs.

Cadillac, for instance, is introducing a night-vision system next year that will be a $1,500 option.

But if it catches on and consumers start demanding it on their Chevy Cavaliers, GM will find a way to deliver.

And Rick Wagoner, president of GM’s North American Operations, sees the day when the technologies will exist to link today’s cellular communications, satellite navigation systems and microchip-based engine-control modules to make it possible for auto makers to continuously monitor the cars and trucks they sell.

This could allow for engine adjustments made via radio signals while the vehicles are being driven, or alerting drivers to developing problems and directing them to the nearest service center for immediate repairs.

Says Cole of the University of Michigan: “We look at this acceleration that has occurred over the last few years and think that it’s just gone crazy and will soon settle down. But it won’t. It will continue to accelerate. We’re just off the starting line.”

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And now, presenting today’s high-tech automobile, which we’ll assemble from the ground up--brakes, steering, tires; chassis; the internal-combustion engine and successors; and the latest in electronic, multimedia gadgetry--before taking an important side trip for an overview of key developments in safety:

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Not Your Grandpa’s Automobile

Computer chips and miniaturized components have made it possible for car makers to load today’s autos with technologically advanced equipment. The modern motor vehicle has more computing power than the first Apollo moon lander. And that has made features such as smart air bags and traction control possible. Here’s a look at how the industry is applying new technologies:

Night Vision System

A new system from Cadillac uses infrared technology to extend the driver’s view of the road ahead. How the system works:

1. A camera mounted in the front grille detects the thermal energy emitted by people, animals or objects that lie beyond the range of headlamps or are hidden behind glare of oncoming lights.

2. The camera processes the images and sends them via a “heads-up” liquid-crystal display onto the windshield so that the driver’s eyes don’t have to leave the road.

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PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Brighter Lighting: High-intensity headlights with increased candlepower created by an electrical arc passing through xenon gas. Just like neon or fluorescent lights.

GPS Navigation: On-board computer system that talks to orbiting satellites, shows exact position of car on a dashboard screen and directs driver to selected destination. Also can act as a security device and emergency locator in the event of highway troubles.

Accelerate by Wire: Gas pedal controls speed and acceleration by electronic signal instead of cables or rods linking accelerator to the engine.

Anti-Whiplash Seats: Seat backs and headrests that measure crash forces and adjust positions to protect occupants’ heads, necks and spines against whiplash injuries.

Load Leveling: On sport-utility vehicles, electronic system that adjusts ground clearance depending on terrain. On some cars, lowers height of vehicle to reduce drag, enhance high-speed stability and improve gas consumption.

Run-Flat Tires: Even if a tire is punctured and out of air, stiffer walls allow travel at up to 50 mph.

Hybrid Gas-Electric Power Plants: Gasoline engine that drives car and simultaneously charges a battery pack for pure electric travel.

Smart Air Bags: (Head-Protection Systems): Second-generation air bags with milder explosive force, designed to reduce facial injuries, even death, in event of deployment. Mated to seat sensors that prevent bag from deploying if passenger seat is empty or is occupied by a child.

Skid Control Systems: Sensors measure wheel loads and tire adhesion, then activate or release brakes, redistribute power to the wheels and even adjust accelerator setting to prevent skidding and loss of steering.

Backup Warning System: Infrared or sonar system that “sees” objects behind a vehicle and beeps a warning when backing up. A frontal collision-avoidance system is also being tested.

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Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel cells are being called the best possible source of power for the electric car of the future. Car companies are spending billions of dollars on development. Fuel cells use a chemical reaction to produce electricity from hydrogen, which can be stored in tanks in the vehicle or distilled from gasoline, methane and other hydrocarbon-based fuels.

1. Liquid fuel is introduced to vaporizer tank and converted to gases under high heat.

2. Gases are oxidized, or combined with air, to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

3. Steam and air are introduced along with a catalyst to convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

4. Hydrogen is introduced into fuel cell, where it combines with air and is forced through a membrane coated with a platinum catalyst. The reaction creates electric current to power the motor that turns the vehicle’s wheels. Waste water is stored for conversion to steam used earlier in the process.

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Anti-Lock Braking System

ABS works by taking control of the brakes when a car’s wheels lock up and stop rotating under hard braking conditions. Without ABS, a panic stop often leads to an uncontrolled skid. With ABS, the computer controls the brake pressure, modulating it so that maximum stopping force is applied without locking up the wheels.

1. Driver slams on brakes, initiating a panic stop.

2. ABS sensor determines that maximum force has been applied and takes control of the brake system.

3. Electronic signals apply and release brakes up to 15 times per second, avoiding lockup and skid.

Graphics reporting by JOHN O’DELL and PAUL DEAN / Los Angeles Times