Wednesday - SAE

Continental-Teves CEO Wolfgang Ziebart chats with Mattias Rabe, Executive
Director of Group Research with Volkswagen.
Two-time CART Championship racing driver Gil de Ferran meets with VP and
Technical Director of Toyota Racing Development, Peter Spence.
Robert LeFort, President, Infineon
North America, moderated the
“Embedded Control Development”
panel in the AVL Technology Theater
on Tuesday.
Susan M. Cischke, Vice President of
Environmental Safety Engineering for
Ford Motor Co., discussed electronic
active safety systems with fellow AVL
Technology Theater panelists.
Larry Denton, President & CEO, Dura Automotive Systems, presented the
company’s business strategy at a press conference.
Former Detroit Lions great and NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders signs autographs
to benefit the Boy Scouts in the Motorola booth on Tuesday.
Chassis integration key to
safety improvements
Electronic stability control (ESC) systems provide huge safety benefits, but
the U.S. consumer needs to know that, said Wolfgang Ziebart, Deputy
Chairman of Continental AG’s Executive Board, who gave the Active
Safety keynote address held in the AVL Technology Theater Tuesday
morning. ESC’s performance has improved greatly since its introduction
nearly a decade ago, he added, but further integration with other vehicle
systems will provide even better safety and performance benefits.
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) says that in
2002, auto-related fatalities in the U.S.
alone were nearly 43,000, and nearly 3
million people were injured. While the
data released last July by NHTSA shows
fatalities at a 10-year high, injuries are
at an all-time low. Ziebart believes this
indicates the concentrated focus on
passive systems such as airbags and
seatbelts is reducing the severity of
injuries in accidents, but that crash
avoidance is taking a back seat. So,
active systems such as ESC must
become a primary focus of the industry
Wolfgang Ziebart, Deputy
Chairman of Continental AG’s
Executive Board, sees the linking
of active and passive systems as
the key enabler to improved
vehicle safety.
and a personal choice by consumers to
prevent accidents from occurring in
the first place. It is the responsibility of
engineers to develop systems that
assist the driver in recognizing and
See CHASSIS, Page 17
Visualizing sound for quieter cars
Automotive designers and engineers will be able to make quieter
vehicles if they can see sound. That’s the concept behind a
startup that uses technology to create 3-D models allowing
developers to see where noise is generated or “leaking” into the
vehicle cockpit.
The startup, SenSound LLC, has licensed what it calls acoustic
holography developed at Wayne State University. The testing
and analysis technology lets designers of planes, trains, automobiles,
and consumer products “see” where unwanted sound is
generated and how it travels through space and time.
“To reduce noise, you need to know its sources and paths,”
said Sean Wu, a Wayne State professor who is Chief Technology
Officer at the startup.
He noted that the SenSound technology is much faster than
the analysis tools being used today. “If you use lasers, it’s very
time consuming. It can take all day to figure out what’s causing
brake squeal. We provide more information and do it in one
minute,” Wu said.
The technology can detect sounds across the full spectrum of
noise. “We can go up to 6000, even 7000 Hz,” said Sergio Maza,
SenSound President.
The acoustic holography system uses a variety of microphones
that are positioned near the object being tested such as a car
door or brake drum. The microphones can detect exactly where
noise is being generated. “We can distinguish between two small
holes located only 1.4 cm (0.5 in) apart,” Maza said.
Terry Costlow
Editorial staff
AEI editorial staff for the Show Daily
can be reached during show hours at
Booth 1859.
Kevin Jost
Editorial Director
Jean L. Broge
Associate Editor
David Alexander
Associate Editor
Patrick Ponticel
Assistant Editor
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Assistant Editor
Jennifer Newton
Assistant Editor
Carey Cyphert
Editorial Assistant
Kami Buchholz
Detroit Editor
Contributing Editors
Terry Costlow
Jenny Hessler
Linda Trego
Wayne Silvonic
Production Manager
Contributing Artists
William L. Schall Jr.
Christian Bonicky
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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