Who would have thought that Pixar would turn out to be a prophet of the automotive industry? In creating its talking automobiles for the computer-animated film Cars, the Disney-associated studio might have done just that, as a group of engineering students in England have demonstrated.
The team at Cambridge developed a "talking" car of their own. Based on a Fiat Stilo, the prototype is capable of telling mechanics what's working and what's not. By transmitting radio signal tags, engine components can inform workshop staff of the working condition of specific parts, as well as identifying parts that haven't received recall work yet and what parts are worth salvaging should the car be heading for the scrap yard.
According to Prof. Duncan McFarlane, the team is discussing selling the technology to "a number of firms", and we hope that the feature gets adopted fast. This is one piece of tech that really speaks to us.
[Source: Auto Express]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
emergencyBrake @ Jul 2nd 2007 11:14PM
Did you really have to use that last line? Sounds interesting. Will it just tell what parts are good and what parts aren't. Because if it just tells you what parts are bad, I don't think it's that important because when you take your car to a repair shop they will (or should) check your car to see what the problem is and not just rely on the thing because it might be wrong.
Andrew @ Jul 3rd 2007 8:54AM
i'm curious as to how the tags will monitor component conditions, especially when it comes to fatigue, wear, and corrosion. not to mention it's yet *another* electronic component that can go wrong. i hate getting CEL's just for an O2 sensor that is intermittently having issues.
icetraxx @ Jul 3rd 2007 1:06PM
Isn't this basically the same thing as onstar vehicle diagnostics?