b.cognosco

Scientific American. Fly-by-wire aircraft have been around for years. Electronic control of the flight surfaces allows for the introduction of greater levels of instability into the design of the aircraft. Instability allows for better maneuverability. Fly-by-wire systems compensate for that instability by making rapid changes to the control surfaces -- essentially decoupling what the pilot is doing with the flight controls and what is actually going on out of the wing and tail. An F-16 would over G in 3 seconds with computer mediation, new designs with 30% instability would do so in 1/16 of a second.
GM is now experimenting with drive-by-wire systems for cars. These cars are computer controlled, and use fuel-cells to power electric motors on the wheels. What's possible with this? Massive improvements to car design. Much better maneuverability, radically enhanced driving characteristics, computer mediated corrections for out of control driving situations, lightweight construction, larger and more flexible cabins, and lower costs. It might even create a situation that revises the car industry.

How? It could provide a means to componentize the car business by making it work much like the computer industry. Car companies could focus on developing a single light weight chasis and sophisticated computer controls for operating the car. Resellers could then purchase the generic chasis and add shells that cater to specific marketplaces and programs that provide specific driving characteristics. The first company to do this in a scalable, efficient way could become the Intel of the car business. Allowing clone assemblers and parts suppliers to compete to cater to every whim of the car buying public. It would also let the chasis provider focus on a core set of attributes: fuel cell operation (power, cost, size, and efficiency), electric motors, lightweight chasis design, and computer drive-by-wire hardware/OS combo (feature set, bundled applications, APIs, development environments, etc.). Very cool.

Is this the prototype for the 8088 of the car industry??? Will it be GM inside or Honda inside? [ Source: John Robb's Radio Weblog]