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If a time traveler
from the 1940s popped into the present and casually driven an
automobile, he might think at first that nothing much had changed much
with man's favorite conveyance. They still have foot pedals,
a steering wheel and four tires. He'll think otherwise once he
starts looking under the skin. Today's buyers expect significant
technological advances from one generation of car to the next, which can
usually take as little as four years. Rapid advances in computer
technology and mechanical design allow carmakers to introduce features
that were previously only science fiction. We look back at 2003
and some of the technologies that entered the mainstream.
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01. Adaptive Headlamps. Turn into a corner and
observe where your headlamps are pointed. They're aimed where the
car body is, not into the corner, where you're headed. They
would be much more effective if they could turn with the
steering. The idea is not new; innovator Preston Tucker had a
swiveling headlamp in his 1948 Torpedo. The feature is rapidly
gaining ground. Mercedes-Benz installed one in the new E, and BMW
has also equipped its new 5. The system works by using a computer
to actively measure the steering wheel angle. As the steering
wheel is turned, so too are the headlamps by means of electric
motors. The Hella-Mercedes-Benz system also takes into account
the speed at which the car is turning. During high-speed driving,
the headlamps follow the steering-wheel angle almost
instantaneously, while at slower speeds, the mechanism follows at
a more modest rate—this allows the driver to relate to the beam
pattern changes. Result: Illumination of the traffic lane
increases by up to 90 percent, and seeing into the corner becomes
a reality. |
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