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Erschienen in:
2021 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel
22. Automotive Engineering
verfasst von : Gritt Ahrens
Erschienen in: Springer Handbook of Mechanical Engineering
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Abstract
The development of vehicles, both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, has a history of more than 130 years. Changing demands and continuous improvement have led to many innovations and made vehicles more reliable and affordable, more beautiful and comfortable, and safer and less polluting.
Today, the automotive industry is most influenced by two megatrends: urbanization and sustainability.
Traffic in urban areas worldwide is becoming more dense, and the awareness that available resources are limited is increasing. Both trends have a major impact on the automotive industry.
This chapter will focus on current major targets of the automotive industry and specific challenges resulting from that. Emphasis is put on technology areas that are of essential importance in this context. The development of cars is quite specific, since the product is a high-technology mass product which at the same time is subject to massive individualization and, thus, high complexity. In order to generate a better understanding of how this specific development will be undertaken, insight is provided into the processes and methods applied in automotive development.