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Manufacturing & Prototyping

Honda Expands Its Virtual Development

Honda’s 2024 Prologue is the automaker’s first battery-electric SUV and its first vehicle of any kind designed primarily through virtual reality (VR). Honda has been building its VR resources...

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Design

Sustainability in Strong Supply

Sustainability no longer is a vague aspiration for OEMs and suppliers looking for a ‘green’ veil. It’s rapidly become a guiding tenet of product innovation, and ESG progress, as the industry pushes...

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News
Connectivity

Honda to Reveal Autonomous Work Vehicle at CONEXPO

Honda will be revealing the prototype of its third-generation electric Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV) at CONEXPO 2023 in Las Vegas. Accord to the company’s press release, Honda aims to...

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News
Software

WCX 2023: Making the ‘Smart Cockpit’ and UX Safer

The in-vehicle experience, also known as user experience (UX), is changing as technology evolves. “Everyone talks about AI for autonomy and ADAS, but I think it [artificial...

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News
Automotive

WCX 2023: Software-Defined Vehicle Development an Ongoing Headache for Industry

An auto industry wedded to its ingrained methods needs to adapt its engineering processes to develop the software that is increasingly central to nearly...

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News
Regulations/Standards

WCX 2023: Can You Drive like SAE J3300

A valid driver’s license from any country put attendees in the driver’s seat at SAE WCX 2023, allowing them to test their driving skills using SAE J3300, the driving skills standard used to...

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Green Design & Manufacturing

Handicapping the ‘Race Toward Zero’

Kelly Senecal did not set out to champion the multi-modal approach to vehicle carbon reduction. He’s the CEO of Covergent Science, a company specializing in computational fluid dynamics. A...

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Power

Powertrain, Electronics Lead Tech-Paper Topics at SAE’s WCX 2023

With engineers converging in mid-April for the 2023 WCX conference in Detroit, technical-paper presentations continue as the backbone of SAE’s annual congress.

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News
Unmanned Systems

Spelling Ford with an ‘E’

One year ago, Ford Motor Co. kicked off a new era in its long history when it bifurcated into two strategically interdependent auto businesses. Ford Blue, the “traditional” business, is responsible for...

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Articles
Software

Toyota’s Advanced R&D Puts Humans First

Gill Pratt has a gift for explaining complex topics in simple terms. And as Toyota Motor Co.’s chief scientist and CEO of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), he also speaks frankly about the...

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Technology Report
Electronics & Computers

Snapdragon Ride Flex Puts Safety, Infotainment onto Single Chip

One chip, multiple benefits. That’s the claim made by Qualcomm Technologies about its new, scalable system-on-a-chip product family.

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News
Power

Mercedes-Benz Architecting Its Own Operating System

Mercedes-Benz revealed in late February that it is developing its own computer operating system, dubbed MB.OS, which it said will be standardized across the company’s entire model...

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Road Ready
Transportation

Toyota Stretches SUV Line-Up with World Debut of Grand Highlander

The new Grand Highlander is a three-row midsize SUV, just like Highlander. So it’s not surprising that the Toyota siblings share two powertrains.

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News
Data Acquisition

Lidar Vs. Everybody in the Onboard Sensor Race

Despite the industrywide realization that SAE driving automation Levels 4 and 5 are not imminent and instead long-term goals, development continues on the sensors that power current and...

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News
Communications

Reliability Is Key to Capturing EVSE Market Share

Pick a percentage: 10%, 20%, 30%. The number of public EV charging stations that are out of service at any given time typically is a double-digit percentage, according to surveys. For a...

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Articles
Unmanned Systems

The Road to Zero Prototypes

The concept of designing, engineering and manufacturing a new vehicle without physical prototypes is typically viewed as either impractical or mythical. Even as virtual development processes have become...

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The Navigator
Power

Finding Range Through Compute Efficiency

This past January, I was among tens of thousands who returned to Las Vegas for CES—the show’s reawakening after the pandemic. Some definite themes emerged from the dozens of conversations I...

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Editorial
Manufacturing & Prototyping

The Ford We Didn’t Know

Ford CEO Jim Farley exposed significant product-development lapses during his company’s fourth-quarter-2022 earnings call on February 2. Ford’s 4Q profit performance was no-excuses dismal. Its causes, he...

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News
Software

The Push for E-Powertrain Progress

Electric powertrain development continues at a fervent pace as OEMs, suppliers and startups try to optimize current technology while forging ahead into new areas. Although battery engineering and...

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Road Ready
Automotive

Volvo’s Electric High-Wire Act

Under a circus-size tent in downtown Stockholm, Volvo recently introduced its new high-wire act — one with its share of nail-biting risk.

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Technology Report
Manufacturing & Prototyping

BMW Takes Multi-Modal Route to Manufacturing

BMW’s Munich factory remains the fertile root of a century of manufacturing, including its first R32 motorcycle in 1923. But the Bavarian automaker’s oldest assembly site is transforming...

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Supplier Eye
Power

Erratic Transition to the BEV Future

The bloom is slowly wilting off the rose. The last two years witnessed an unprecedented level of battery electric vehicle (BEV) investment from both the auto industry and federal government....

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News
Green Design & Manufacturing

Making over the World’s Leading Hybrid

Its markedly upgraded power and performance take it to a driving-dynamics place difficult to believe could be achieved.

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News
Materials

Recaro Pioneers Seating Shells Made with CF Recyclate

The green flag is about to drop on an auto-racing first: a seat shell infused with recycled carbon fiber.

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Technology Report
Power

A Divergent Approach to Vehicle Development and Production

Among the most intriguing vehicles on display at the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours D’ Elegance was a pair developed by an obscure brand, Czinger Vehicles, and its parent company,...

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News
Power

Engineering ‘Electron Guzzlers’

Apparently, ‘gas guzzler’ now encompasses any vehicle that burns hydrocarbon fuels, no matter how efficient. Anything with an exhaust pipe.

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News
Aerospace

CASE Struggles to Fulfil Expectations

The saying ‘Two steps forward, one step back’ describes the overall progress of CASE — Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified vehicles and infrastructures. While electrification and...

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News
Software

Proving out DC Fast Charging — in the Extreme

The ability to charge electric vehicles at a very fast rate is a key to electrifying mobility across the U.S. It’s a focus of the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Extreme Fast Charger project,...

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Articles
Materials

The Olfactory Factor in AV Interiors

Whether they’re riding in an autonomous shuttle, a transit bus, a train or a rental car, passengers often face cabin air full of “mal odors” — bad smells — including cigarette and vape...

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