Big-Three Top Ees Speak
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THE HANSEN REPORT ON AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS. A Business and Technology Newsletter VOL. 19, NO. 5◆◆ PORTSMOUTH, NH USA JUNE 2006 Roundup of Japanese Big-Three Top EEs Speak Auto Electronics I had the opportunity last month to Chrysler sees vehicle architecture de- Suppliers, FY 2005 visit individually with top electrical engi- sign and validation as something that neers from the North American Big Three must be handled 100% inside. “However, carmakers: Ronn Jamieson, formerly the we are making a move at the other end of In this article, FY 2005 is the fiscal year ending controls and software engineering director the spectrum—where wiring design and March 31, 2006. for GM North America, recently put in release will be 100% done by the supplier, Alpine Electronics charge of HVAC/supplier integration; Bill with Chrysler supervision.” FY 2005 Consolidated Net Sales: ¥254 Mattingly, vice president of electrical/ When it comes to wiring, Ford also billion ($2.3 billion) electronics engineering at Chrysler defers to the supplier community, having Change from FY 2004: up 14% Group; and Graydon Reitz, director of agreed to a long-term partnership with FY 2005 Net Income: ¥6.2 billion ($55.1 electrical systems engineering at Ford. Yazaki. Ford will pursue other technology million), or 2.4% of sales. Net income fell Generous with their time and insights, partnerships with infotainment suppliers. 22.2% compared with the prior year. these experts shared their views on a Ford has had a habit of changing suppliers FY 2006 Estimated Net Sales: ¥250 bil- number of topics including the role sup- frequently in search of the lowest cost lion ($2.2 billion), down 1.5% from FY pliers play and the development of active possible, but that will change says 2005 safety features. Graydon Reitz: “The fly-by-night, two or FY 2006 Estimated Net Income: ¥6 bil- In an attempt to off-load overhead, three years in, and then out doesn’t work. lion ($54.4 million) some carmakers have been relying heavily Now when we talk to suppliers, we are The Audio Products segment contrib- on suppliers for engineering support. I looking at long-term partnership relation- uted 51% of Alpine’s sales in FY 2005. asked the electrical engineers which way ships—for 10 or 15 years out.” Ford North Audio Products sales grew just 5% during their companies were heading these days, America recently concluded an agreement the period, but Alpine shifted a portion toward or away from reliance on suppliers. with Hitachi subsidiary, Xanavi, to supply of the segment’s sales to the Information For all of them the degree of reliance Ford with navigation equipment, but not and Communication Equipment segment. on in-house competencies versus suppli- yet including infotainment. According to the company, this adjust- ers’ expertise depends on which part of All three carmakers are keen on the ment better reflects the growing trend to- the vehicle you are talking about. Accord- development of safety systems, particu- ward more integrated audio, navigation ing to GM’s Mr. Jamieson, “Powertrain is larly active safety systems. Mr. Jamieson and video systems. clearly core, and we view software and believes active safety is “one of the hottest Information and Communication controls as a core area of competency that things going right now.” Of particular in- Equipment sales were up 25.1% over the we want to continue to develop.” terest to GM is finding active safety sen- prior year, aided by the introduction of Since it helps define the vehicle’s char- sors that can serve multiple functions, new aftermarket in-dash navigation and acter, body control is also core. “For years which would help reduce the cost of add- audio/video products as well as increased GM defined the functions and modeled ing new features. penetration of integrated systems. Alpine those functions; we now are taking the The cost of some of those sensors must also benefited from increased vehicle next step—we’ll have full control of the also come down, according to Mr. sales in the U.S. and Europe by Honda, application software of those body func- Jamieson. “Radar sensors are still too ex- Alpine’s major OEM customer. OEM cus- tions.” GM works closely with its chassis pensive. A promising alternative is laser tomers accounted for 77% of sales. systems suppliers, but it will take charge of radar, which is improving in performance chassis systems when they “cut across mul- and has inherently lower costs,” he noted. Denso tiple [vehicle control] domains.” According to Hella, laser radar, or lidar, FY 2005 Consolidated Net Sales: Chrysler’s Bill Mattingly agrees that can reduce the cost of an ACC system by ¥3,188.3 billion ($28.4 billion) combining chassis systems with the 50%. Chrysler’s Mr. Mattingly also sees Change from FY 2004: 13.9% growth powertrain can only be done at the ve- promise in laser radar, despite the fact that FY 2005 Net Income: ¥169.6 billion hicle level. “The next one, collision miti- unlike radar, laser sensors can’t see ($1.5 billion), or 5.3% of sales. Net mar- gation, is a combination of the safety through driving rain, snow or heavy fog. gin in FY 2004 was 4.7%. system, the brake system and the engine “These are situations where you shouldn’t management system. That also will be be driving with adaptive cruise control. Turn to Roundup, page 3 done inside.” Turn to EEs, page 3 Drowsy Driver Monitoring Slow to Wake Up According to the NHTSA-sponsored yet been issued. Once announced, 90 to far shipped prototypes to two carmakers, 100 Car Naturalistic Driving Study, pub- 120 days would elapse to allow for public one in Europe and the other in the U.S. lished in April 2006, drowsiness affects comment. From that point it would take crashes and collisions at a much higher another 12 to 18 months to issue a man- Distracted Driving rate than expected: Drowsiness was a con- date, which wouldn’t take effect for an- A much bigger problem than drowsy tributing factor in 12% of all crashes and other three years. If “fast-track” ESC is driving is distracted driving. Indeed, ac- 10% of near crashes. Most current data- going to take almost five years to reach cording to the 100 Car Study, “Almost base estimates place drowsiness-related implementation, any drowsy driver warn- 80% of all crashes and 65% of all near crashes at approximately 2% to 4%. ing mandate would take at least that long crashes involved the driver looking away Adding weight to the striking findings to be implemented, if at all. from the forward roadway just prior to the is the realistic nature of the study, which With or without mandates, Volvo will onset of the conflict.” was the first of its kind done for NHTSA probably introduce its Driver Alert system Toyota has one answer to that problem (National Highway Traffic Safety Admin- before the end of 2007, assuming that already on the road in the Japanese mar- istration). The study tracked real drivers verification tests continue to be success- ket. This past March, Toyota introduced a in northern Virginia and metropolitan ful. Volvo is conducting tests that require driver monitoring system on the Lexus GS Washington, D.C., going about their busi- drivers to drive until they risk falling 450 hybrid that keeps track of the driver’s ness with no special instructions and no asleep at the wheel, in real vehicles, on face position from a digital camera experimenter present. The data, including closed tracks in Sweden, Belgium and the mounted on the steering wheel. If the 5 channels of video, was collected from United States. (Co-drivers with control of vehicle’s radar sensor detects a possible 100 instrumented vehicles driven a total the brakes ride along in the test vehicles.) collision while the driver is looking away of approximately 2 million miles, by 242 According to Daniel Levin, the Volvo from the road, a warning light and buzzer drivers, over a 12- or 13-month period. engineer responsible for developing the is activated earlier than if the driver was Before this study’s surprising results, Driver Alert system, thus far Volvo has looking straight ahead. If the driver takes NHTSA had quantified the deadly nature seen no significant differences in the be- no action in response to the warning, the of the drowsiness problem this way: havior of drowsy drivers from different system automatically applies the brakes “Approximately 100,000 crashes per year, locations of the world. Volvo is also per- slightly to alert the driver to danger. The including 1,357 fatal crashes and approxi- forming so-called “alert tests” in different driver monitoring system will be available mately 71,000 injury crashes, involved parts of the world, where subjects drive on on the new Lexus LS coming to both Eu- drowsiness.” Given the 100 Car Study public roads under normal conditions, rope and the U.S. next September. findings, NHTSA’s numbers now severely when they are not sleepy, to make sure the The results of the 100 Car Naturalistic understate the problem. system doesn’t produce false alarms. Driving Study are available at the NHTSA We talked to NHTSA press spokesman With a camera mounted in front of the website, www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov. ◆ Rae Tyson to see if a groundswell has de- rearview mirror, Volvo’s Driver Alert sys- veloped for mandated drowsy driver moni- tem keeps video tabs on the road mark- THE HANSEN REPORT ON tors, which carmakers have experimented ings ahead of the vehicle and alerts the with for years and have even used in pro- driver if it detects signs of fatigue or dis- AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS duction vehicles.