Must-Have New Car Features

You may think the only important car features are GPS and a good insurance quote. While a functioning satellite navigation system and cheap coverage are certainly sought after they are far from the only automotive accessories that can greatly enhance your life as a driver. The last decade has seen a startling number of technological improvements that have made cars much safer and significantly better at performing under stressful road conditions. Equipping your car with the following features will change the way you think about driving:

Anti-lock brakes
Anti-lock brakes are a great example of a popular technology that has evolved exponentially since its inception. While still ensuring that your vehicle will be able to stop on slippery or gravel-covered surfaces, newer prototypes allow your car to electronically control front-to-rear brake balance, known as electronic brake-force distribution or traction control system.

OnStar system
You may know it mainly from their prolific radio commercials but the popular General Motors funded road-side assistance service also offers hands-free calling, turn-by-turn navigation and a number of diagnostic and communication systems that make the premiere in-vehicle security service, with over 6 million customers (though they have recently seen a number of competitors).

Kinetic dynamic suspension
KDSS is an interconnected hydraulic technology that is available in a number of new models, including the Toyota 4-runner and several other sports utility vehicles. Very popular among off-road drivers.

Electronic Stability Control
This computerized system monitors your car's steering and reduces skidding, automatically correcting for poor turns. Your rear tires can compensate for over-turning among your front tires and vice versa. The quickly growing market for ESC should lead to lower prices and continued upgrades.

Side curtain airbags
Transportation officials claim that the inclusion of side curtain airbags could save nearly a thousand lives per year. Designed specifically to protect the head from the side window in the case of a collision, family-friendly side airbags drastically reduce the risk of brain injury.

Remote keyless entry
This technology is pretty common now (it's technically been around since the 80's) but recent improvements and upgrades have made RKS (remote keyless system) a wonderful way to get in and out of your car without dropping groceries or locking yourself out. How it works is the fob sends out a radio signal with a special identity code that only your car recognizes.

It seems there are as many car features out there right now as there are grains of sand on the beach, but many of them are superfluous. The best features are ones that will protect you and your family in the event of collision and assist your vehicle to avoid collisions in the first place.

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Windshield Wiper Motor

BEHAVIOR

It provides the muscle to move the wipers back and forth across the

windshield.

HABITAT

The wiper motor is mounted on the top of the firewall at the back of

the engine compartment.

HOW IT WORKS

This is a high-torque electric motor supplied with power from the battery.

When you turn on the wipers, the motor converts electric energy into rotary mechanical energy. The output of the motor turns a worm gear, which looks like a spiral of metal wrapped around a metal rod.

Worm gears are fundamentally different from other gears in several ways. They can radically increase the turning power or torque, which is useful in applications such as windshield wipers. And they change the

direction of rotation. In the windshield wiper the worm gear changes the direction of the motor shaft’s rotation 90 degrees.

The worm gear meshes with another gear. This arrangement decreases the speed of the motor’s rotation and increases again the torque. This second gear shares its axle with a cam or crank. These devices change the motion from rotary motion produced by the motor to the back-and-forth motion of the wipers. The cam or crank connects to a rod that drives the driver’s wiper and to another rod that drives the passenger’s side wiper.

The wiper motor is a direct current motor; its speed is governed by the voltage it receives. So to change the speed of the wipers, different voltages (up to 13 volts maximum) are fed to the motors.

Wiper motors have a park feature. When you turn the wipers off, they continue wiping, but stop in their normal rest or park position. To get the wipers to return to their park position when you shut them off,

the motor has two additional electrical contacts. A circuit feeds power to them after you have cut power by switching off the wipers.

INTERESTING FACTS

Before electric motors were used to drive windshield wipers, the engine’s vacuum pressure supplied the power. This meant that the wipers went faster when the engine went faster. Going up a steep hill reduced the speed of the windshield wipers. Electric motors replaced the vacuum pressure wipers starting in 1926.

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A field guide to automotive technology

Ed Sobey

Cover and interior design: Joan Sommers

Photo on page 28: © Smokey Combs

© 2009 by Ed Sobey

All rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5

Printed in the United States of America

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