In 2022, technology has played a pivotal role in the evolution of the global auto sector despite persisting challenges such as the supply chain disruption, surge in raw material prices, and semiconductor shortage.
Suffice to say, it’s not enough for a car to offer just space, good mileage, and design for it to turn people’s heads anymore. What it requires now, is to be feature-loaded, equipped with latest technologies, and thereby ensuring that the end-consumer has a vehicle that they can easily interact with, and of course, a vehicle that has the ability to react to real-world situations on its own.
In this year-ender special, we list out a few technologies that have grabbed the auto aficionados’ attention and are here to stay.
Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)
ADAS has been the talk of the town in 2022. The auto inc is keen on deploying ADAS technologies to their vehicles to enhance the safety aspects of it, especially in India where road safety is a major concern. In this system, there are several features such as lane-keep assist, reverse-brake assist, lane-departure warning, and more.
The most notable include the Adaptive Cruise Control, which keeps your car moving at a set speed, meanwhile adjusting the acceleration and deceleration depending on the speed of the vehicle moving ahead. Further, there is a blind spot-alert, which signals the driver if there’s a vehicle in the blindspot.
Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is another feature that needs to be lauded. It alerts and warns the driver if there’s a possibility of a collision with the vehicle moving ahead. If the driver isn’t able to act quickly, the FCW will automatically use brakes to stop the vehicle.
Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)
While AEB comes as an ADAS feature, it can also be a stand-alone feature equipped with cars. The AEB reacts promptly to accidental situations and acts more efficiently and quicker than the driver would do.
Cars equipped with AEB apply the brakes on its own in case of a potential collision and helps in avoiding/minimising the impact.
Regenerative Braking
Your car’s battery can be juiced while you apply brakes. Too Sci-fi? Wait, we’ll explain.
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. And when we apply brakes, the kinetic energy lost is usually waste dissipating as heat in the process. But not anymore.
In what comes as a breakthrough technology for the hybrid and all-electric vehicles around, a regenerative braking system converts the lost kinetic energy into electricity to power the battery pack while one applies brakes of their cars. Technology, I tell you!
Hybrid vehicles
Talking about regenerative braking, another technology namely the hybrid engines, automatically becomes a talk point of our discussion.
A hybrid car comes with a conventional ICE engine but with an electric motor or two, which sources energy from the battery pack that comes equipped with the car. Most OEMs have taken the Hybrid route to bridge the gap between ICE engines and the all-electric future of wheels.
360-Degree Camera
Poised to become one of the most sought-after features in the times to come (across the segments), the 360-degree camera helps in displaying a top-down view of your vehicle on your infotainment screen – thanks to the apt technology that combines different cameras mounted on every side of the vehicle.
This feature is of great use when parking in closely-packed spaces and to avoid low-speed crashes and damages to your vehicle.
What does Auto Inc have to say
R.S Sachdeva, COO, Eicher Trucks and Buses, said, “The Indian Commercial Vehicle industry, one of the largest in the world, is undergoing a transformation driven by technology advances in telematics, electromobility & alternate fuels and safety. We at VE Commercial Vehicles are well aligned with these developments. In 2020, Eicher was the first CV OEM in India to offer 100% connected vehicles. Eicher’s MyEicher App -a comprehensive, next-generation telematics solution for effective Fleet Management, Uptime Services and Predictive Diagnostics, is now making fleet management easier for our customers and providing valuable coaching for Eicher truck and bus drivers.”
Sridhar Thirunakara, Founder and MD, Arctic Fox, said, “The year 2022 has been eventful for OEMs. With more investment in R&D, there was good growth for the new technology to come in, in the automobile industry. The industry witnessed more use of software to design and develop products in-house. A new segment called micro-mobility vehicles like electric kick scooters saw a rise, owing to good technological advancements. The upcoming year will witness more of its adoption by the end customers, and incremental innovation from a tech perspective.”
