In spite of the fact that the automotive industry is a profit-driven and -making machine, it still inherently brings about technological progress, as companies try to outdo one another. It’s not the best way to bring it about, but at least it sort of works.
In fact, the automotive industry is easily one of the leading sectors and is “frequently a leader,” according to a CAR (Center for Automotive Research) report, quoted by GreenCarCongress.
It acknowledges that it’s difficult to raise one’s head and keep it up given the state of the industry and the ever changing conditions, economic or otherwise, and that some $100 (€73) billion are spent on research globally every year, of which around $18 (€13) billion in the US alone – that equates to $1,200 spent per vehicle.
It also makes up 16 percent of the total worldwide research and development funding, using around 4 percent of its revenues in this way, though that percentage can be and usually is higher.
The study mentions the following:
"The electronics content in modern automobiles has climbed dramatically, enabling the expansion of features that has improved safety, performance, and efficiency. An average vehicle contains around 60 microprocessors to run electric content—four times as many as a decade ago. More than 10 million lines of software code run a typical vehicle’s computer network—more than half the lines of code that reportedly run Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.”
By Andrei Nedelea
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