Page 397 - Understanding Automotive Electronics

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11 FUTURE AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

This concept already has been considerably refined since its inception.
However, there are still some technical problems that must be overcome before
this system is ready for production use. Nevertheless, the performance of the
experimental systems that have been tested is impressive. It will be interesting
to watch this technology improve and to see which, if any, of the present system
configurations becomes commercially available.

Low Tire Pressure Warning System
Another potential appli- Another interesting electronic system that may be used on future
cation of electronics to automobiles is a warning system for low tire pressure that works while the
automotive safety is a car is in motion. A potentially dangerous situation could be avoided if the
low tire pressure warning driver could be alerted to the fact that a tire has low pressure. For example, if
system. a tire develops a leak, the driver could be warned in sufficient time to stop
the car before control becomes difficult.
There are several pressure sensor concepts that could be used. A block
diagram of a hypothetical system is shown in Figure 11.13. In this scheme, a
tire pressure sensor continually measures the tire pressure. The signal from the
sensor mounted on the rolling tire is coupled by a link to the electronic signal
processor. Whenever the pressure drops below a critical limit, a warning signal
is sent to a display on the instrument panel to indicate which tire has the low
pressure.

Figure 11.13
Low Tire Pressure
Warning System

FPO

384 UNDERSTANDING AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS