Gadgetory

these are hands-on things you experience in your car everyday or soon will number five is infotainment seems pretty low for something which includes navigation mobile devices satellite radio and apps and more but I put infotainment electronics rather low because it still lags well behind our phones in terms of scope and elegance and until that changes it stays down here in the cellar number four is lighting yes General Motors rolled out smart lighting like our tronic eye some 60 years ago but it was like something out of a Flash Gordon movie wonky today Auto lighting electronics are solid you may switch your new cars lights to automatic the first night you own it and not touch them again for months and soon smart beam shaping lights will arrive that will utterly transform the way your car lights the road not just when it does number three keys and security it used to be that when your car was getting boosted all I could do is sound an alarm that nobody cared about today security electronics actually try to stop the theft not annoy neighbours immobilizing the car's ignition unless an electronic smart key is present and that same key is rarely handled today thanks to electronics just leave it in your pocket and the car's door handles and ignition recognize you even other settings may follow based on the keys presence it's ironic that a key we barely have to touch anymore seems to be getting bigger and heavier all the time number two is Road sensing this is a big one it rolls up infrared radar laser camera and ultrasound to read the road detect cars around you and even find and get into parking spaces alongside you it's moving us fast from a current world of driver assist to an imminent world of self-driving cars the other side of the coin are the sensors that drive things like ABS airbags and stability control those are the big three that have made huge reductions in many kinds of injuries and fatalities on the road before I get to number one I can tell you it won't be climate control in spite of having a lot of electronics behind it it just doesn't seem to have made that much of a difference tell me you don't still fiddle endlessly with the heat and cooling as you drive the number one way electronics is revolutionized cars lately is in the powertrain today's engines and transmissions are run by computers instead of past technologies like carburetor adjustments or vacuum timing contraptions and voodoo transmission tweaks Electronics have made car power trains more powerful less fuel consuming much cleaner and with ages between many service intervals this is also the main reason your car starts and runs the same every time unimaginable a few decades ago and whether you drive a minivan or an m3 that appliance light quality is the electronic benefit you enjoy the most every day more top 5 lists to wake the car lover go to see net on cars comm click on top 5