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Editorial
Electronics & Computers

‘Heavy’ Topics on Tap for WCX18

Another April, another SAE World Congress Experience—the organization’s flagship event (wcx18.org). A time when global mobility experts descend on Cobo Hall in Detroit to share insights and...

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Engineers Are Re-Engineering Ford

When your market share has plummeted more than two percentage points since 2013, your product range is growing cobwebs, your dealers are screaming for new models and you’ve recently lost one of your top...

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Editorial
Transportation

Fear and Loathing on the Path to Level 4 Driving

One of the perks of my job is access to the latest vehicles. Such hands-on product exposure is essential, I believe, for understanding the rapid advances of automated-driving technology and...

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News
Unmanned Systems

Does Autonomy Have Room for the ‘Engineer Enthusiast?’

It’s no secret that car companies cultivate the “engineer enthusiasts” in their ranks to work on niche models and other special projects intended to demonstrate that...

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Editorial
Green Design & Manufacturing

EVs Lack a Robust Charging Grid

The flames lit up the sky when the electric-power substation in my town blew up one night last August. TV news had it covered: A transformer at the Detroit Edison site had exploded, immediately knocking out...

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Editorial
Electronics & Computers

Deep Learning How to Drive

Learning to drive as a teen is a rite of passage, my own experiences indelibly marked in my brain. But the “brain” learning to drive in the future won’t be blowing out sixteen candles, if Nvidia has its way....

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News
Propulsion

Beleaguered Diesel Could Use a Break—or a Breakthrough

Start talking car-business “big-picture” with engineers and once you hash out autonomy for the thousandth time, the discussion invariably comes to diesel. Is diesel...

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Kickoff to Begin Testing Program to Validate SAE J2954 Wireless Charging Recommended Practice

SAE International Ground Vehicle Standards activity is recruiting industry participants for a Cooperative Research Project (CRP) for Safe and...

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Editorial
Design

Stoking the Creative, Innovative Engineer

A book for academia as well as practicing engineers who want to unlock their potential.

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Core Ford, New Ford…One Ford?

Soon after news broke late on May 22 that Ford Motor Co. was replacing its president and CEO, the calls, emails and texts started to roll in.

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News
Electronics & Computers

CNH Advances Driverless Tech for Tractors

Precision farming and machine automation already play a significant role in agriculture. CNH Industrial’s Innovation Group is focusing on key times of the year when farm work still requires long...

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News
Unmanned Systems

Vital Transformation

Almost lost in discussions about autonomous-driving technology are the “other” road users and how they fit into the driverless, robotic-vehicle future.

Editorial
Automotive

What’s Old (And Revered) Is New Again

Apart from top brass and various other engineering true believers at Mercedes-Benz, perhaps no one was more delighted than me when it was confirmed a couple of years ago that Mercedes was introducing...

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Automotive Influence on Off-Highway Cabs

Describing new features and technologies for off-highway vehicles as “automotive-style” sometimes comes off as marketing hype—words meant to tap into views that passenger vehicles are more...

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News
Electronics & Computers

A How-To for Car Hackers

The new vehicle you’ve just spent 40 months engineering, testing and validating, that’s soon to be in customer hands, is now a big, fat target. The hackers want in.

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Editorial
Manned Systems

Bad Gas?

It’s often the case with proverbs that many are of uncertain derivation. That’s true of one of my go-to favorites: “May you live in interesting times.”

News
RF & Microwave Electronics

Commercial Vehicles in a Digital World

“We don’t want to have a Detroit and a Las Vegas,” said Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) at an international press workshop in advance of...

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News
Materials

‘Military-Grade’ Aluminum

When Teddy Roosevelt led his Rough Riders in their famous charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, he was carrying a piece of leading-edge military technology: an aluminum canteen. Since that...

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Disruption Is One Thing, But...

A late-spring brouhaha that developed between Tesla Motors and an intrepid reporter known for skeptical Tesla coverage blew over fairly quickly—but not before highlighting some unaccounted costs of...

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News
Automotive

Elon, Henry, and the Mastery of Manufacturing

“Do you want to make a bet on Musk’s latest pronouncement?” asked my friend the Tier 1 supplier engineer, whose company is part of Tesla’s supply chain.

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Editorial
Test & Measurement

Send in Yamaguchi!

Ted Klaus is not given to hyperbole. So when the Chief Engineer of Honda’s 2017 NSX says something is “the best,” he means it. And that’s how Klaus described hearing Jack Yamaguchi’s first impressions of the...

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Editorial
Green Design & Manufacturing

Stage V-Ready Engines Take Center Stage at Bauma

Mid-April in Munich marks the 31st edition of the largest trade fair in the world, Bauma. With more than 3400 exhibitors and 530,000 visitors at the last iteration in 2013—not quite the...

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Editorial
Transportation

C'mon Jeep, Walk the Walk

I stopped counting the marketing presentations I’ve attended that included a slide with the alleged Henry Ford quote regarding the folly of soliciting customer opinion: “If I had asked people what they wanted,...

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News
Green Design & Manufacturing

Mainstreaming Hybrids and EVs

Will the inefficiency of the automobile ultimately doom the automobile? Big questions like this one, posed by Ford Technical Fellow Dr. Michael Tamor, hit February’s SAE Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Symposium...

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Editorial
RF & Microwave Electronics

High-Voltage Developments

The concept of higher-voltage electrical systems in vehicles between 12-volt conventional and 200- and 600-volt full hybrids and electric vehicles is not new, with development experiencing fits and starts over the...

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