I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it in any of my other Kibbles and Bytes articles, but I’m pretty interested in cars and car technology. Sometimes it’s funny how we keep old habits we have based on older car technology that don’t apply with modern cars. One habit that’s fortunately going away is pumping the brakes when stopping on snow or slick conditions. ABS (anti-lock brake systems) make pumping the brakes completely unnecessary. The system effectively pulsates the braking action faster than you could ever pump the pedal.
It’s actually amazing how much technology is present in cars these days, and that’s before you even consider the gizmos inside the cabin like backup cameras, GPS navigation systems and bluetooth enabled stereo controls. Modern engines are extremely efficient and robust. They’re able to get more power from less physical space, operate more cleanly and safely than engines of the past. This is all thanks in large part to the computer controls that manage everything from air-fuel mixture to individual cylinder management. Most modern cars don’t even use a physical wire cable connecting the gas pedal to the throttle. It’s all done electronically. A smaller number of cars (mostly only higher-end luxury vehicles at this point) even use electronic steering. That means there’s no direct mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels!
Then of course you have vehicle stability control systems. These systems consist of g-force sensors and wheel slip sensors all over the car. A computer can interpret these signals to determine what your car is doing every instant. Are the back wheels slipping and beginning to slide out? The computer is able to sense that motion (probably even before you do) and apply precision braking force to individual wheels in an attempt to correct the problem. You might feel it a little bit, but it’s usually very good at correcting the problem and all you’ll see is a little light turn on in the instrument cluster. (I like having a little fun with my car in the winter time, so I call that light the “anti-fun light”)
Even common problems that used to plague engines like knocking and pinging are virtually eliminated by computer control. My IT partner in crime, Morgan, and I were discussing this earlier in the week. I made the claim that running premium grade fuel in a normal un-boosted engine wouldn’t do anything except empty your wallet faster. I also made the claim that you couldn’t do the opposite of putting regular fuel into a boosted (turbocharged, supercharged, etc) engine. Well, it turns out with modern controlled engines, neither of those assertions are necessarily true. Because the timing and fuel-air mixture is all controlled by computer, if you put premium fuel in an un-boosted engine, it may actually be able to delay the timing enough to get a few extra horsepower. This isn’t always the case, and the marginal gain probably doesn’t justify the additional fuel cost, but my assertion that nothing would be different wasn’t quite correct.
Perhaps more surprisingly, many modern engines that are boosted are able to compensate for things like lower grade regular fuel. They can advance the timing to avoid pre-detonation and in some cases regulate and reduce boost pressure as well. Of course, that will mean you won’t get the power for which the engine is rated, but it will still run smoothly without knocking or pinging.
All these things have changed so rapidly over the past few decades. The computers involved aren’t even that smart, but it’s amazing that we can do all of these great things with them. Who knows what they’ll be able to do in another 10 years?