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The Electro Gyro-Cator allows a driver to monitor his progress, plot and follow courses to a destination, select alternate routes, and drive more safely on unfamiliar roads or at night. Employing a sealed helium gas-rate gyro, the Electro Gyro-Cator offers visual display (CRT display) of a car's present location, direction and route, with overlay maps for fast, simple route selection and monitoring. The primary elements of the unit include trip and direction sensors, a 16-Bit central processing unit, a CRT display screen and a collection of transparent overlay maps fitted to the screen.

An essential feature of the Audi Quattro permanent four-wheel drive system is in the inter-axle differential located on the hollow output shaft in the gearbox: the drive is taken from this differential forward to the front differential through the inside of the hollow shaft, and rearward to a propellor shaft driving the rear differential. The major advantages in everyday driving include improved traction and a reduced tendency toward throttle induced changes of attitude. The greater traction allows not only better progress in difficult road conditions; it also gives better acceleration in difficult traffic situations, such as when joining a busy main road. The more easily predictable handling response to throttle changes means that Quattro vehicles have better tracking stability. Altogether, the active safety and "roadability" are considerably improved.

There is a definite trend toward the increasing use of “Glass Encapsulation Technology” in the automotive industry. In this technology a glass object such as a window is placed within a mould and an elastomer is injected around the window giving a tight sealing system. A wide variety of materials are currently used as the sealing materials in either static or semi-static encapsulated glazing systems, including a wide range of “elastomers”. New thermoplastic elastomer compounds are being developed that are characterized by their consistent properties; including high melt-fluidity, very good surface appearance, sealing properties, and resistance to weathering. Compound performance is highly dependent on formulation variables as well as the chemistries of the base materials. KRATON® SEBS polymers1 are block copolymers of styrene and ethylene/butylene.

A new road feel feedback control design of steer-by-wire (SBW) is proposed, which is produce the steering feel of conventional vehicle with equipped electronic power steering (EPS) system, due to SBW system removes mechanical linkages between steering system and front wheels. A dynamic model is established to study the road feel generation and deal with the need of computed rack force of steer system. Based on the analysis of the assisting characteristic and the active damping control strategy of the EPS system, an integrated road feel algorithm is proposed. For rack force is difficult to measure, an estimator is presented to estimate rack force by Kalman filter (KF). The hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) test bench results show that the proposed road feel control design make drivers get road feel information and SBW system can improve the vehicle maneuverability and comfortably.

The Lunar Electric Rover (LER), which was formerly called the Small Pressurized Rover (SPR), is currently being carried as an integral part of the lunar surface architectures that are under consideration in the Constellation Program. One element of the LER is the suit port, which is the means by which crew members perform Extravehicular Activities (EVAs). Two suit port deliverables were produced in fiscal year 2008: a 1-g suit port concept evaluator for functional integrated testing with the LER 1-g concept vehicle and a functional and pressurizable Engineering Unit (EU). This paper focuses on the 1-g suit port concept evaluator test results from the Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RATS) October 2008 testing at Black Point Lava Flow (BPLF), Arizona. The 1-g suit port concept evaluator was integrated with the 1-g LER cabin and chassis concepts.

Cars are undergoing major design changes, and typical usage scenarios are already showing significant departures from the main goal. What used to be mostly a transportation means is quickly becoming a mobile micro-world that replicates features, functions and services traditionally available in homes and offices. This paper will identify industry trends in the Driver-Machine-Interface area, and will try to anticipate how quickly and to what extent cars will morph into smart assistants to make the driving experience richer and even more enjoyable than it is today.