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Automakers Trade 'Mules' for ComputersThe advanced computer design brings cars to market faster and cheaper.
For decades, automotive engineers had one place to test the vehicles they designed -- where the rubber meets the road.
But software capability is advancing so rapidly that the time-honored practice of building prototype vehicles -- "mules" in auto industry jargon -- to test safety equipment, manufacturing tools, and aerodynamics is fading fast.
Super-powerful computers can now simulate vehicle appearance, functions and performance so well that engineers send few if any prototypes to the wind tunnel, proving grounds or crash test lab.
It's a sea change that has the potential to save millions and bring vehicles to the market faster in the highly competitive auto industry. A single prototype vehicle can cost up to $500,000 and as many as 60 prototypes have been used to develop new models.
"The cost savings to go digitally are enormous," said Phil Martens, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of North America product creation. "It reduces the complexity of having to worry about building the prototype in the first place."
One in three vehicles on the market today is designed with minimal use of prototypes. And in five years, the number will be closer to two-thirds.
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31/1/2005 | Viewed 6,209 time(s)
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