06 March 2014

Robocar

Recent musings reminded me of an (apocryphal) quote from the late 1970's: "I'd rather have my chip in every Ford than in every PC." The point being, of course, at that time engine management was moving to embedded processor control from simple mechanical/pneumatic control, and there were more of those to shift than PCs (which, technically, didn't yet exist). Which got me to wondering what the state of the auto is today.

According to this (and a decade ago), the answer is
The current 7-Series BMW and S-class Mercedes boast about 100 processors apiece. A relatively low-profile Volvo still has 50 to 60 baby processors on board. Even a boring low-cost econobox has a few dozen different microprocessors in it. Your transportation appliance probably has more chips than your Internet appliance.

(This NYT article from 2010 yields the same number.)

I suppose the answer to Apple's situation: the iCar.

No comments: