Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

October 17, 2013

Latest Improvements in Car Safety

Filed under: 2012 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 7:01 AM

In the earlier stages of the car manufacturing, cars could ran at low speed compared to those today. Improvements in the car engines have led to increase in the car speed. Simultaneously the other parts of the car like brakes, wheels, etc., are also improved to fit into the engines capacity.
Along with these, safety features of the car also improved. The demand from the public and because of legislation for safety features in automobile made manufacturers to focus on including safety features. Until 1980s, safety was not a selling feature for cars. Awareness among public relating to safety in the cars increased because of independent crash tests by different groups. This article discusses the improvements in car safety.

  • Seat belts: The invention of seat belts has more safeguarded many people’s lives than any other safety feature in the automobiles. Volvo was the first to introduce three point or lap/sash seat belt for standard fitting. It was launched in 1959 on the Amazon and PV544 sedans. Victoria is the first state in the world to make the seat belts for front seats compulsory in 1970. Making seat belt wearing while driving, reduced accidents by fifty percent.

Today’s seat belts are more effective than the first basic model. The problem of poor adjustment was minimized with inertia reel. Seat belt helps you – by taking slack out of system. And, will prevent the occupant’s excessive forward movement. When the body is being pressed tight, the load limiter releases the belt as per the senses it got during injury. Some of the advancements in the seat belts we can not see in the structure of the car itself.

  • Electronic stability control: The earliest inventors of this system are Mercedes Benz and BMW. The electronic stability control takes the anti-lock braking system a lot further. It helps the driver take action prevent skidding by automatic sensing of skid occurrence.

Some cars have linked the electric power assisted steering with stability control system. It will help the driver in cases when they are using insufficient or excessive amount of steering input, the electric stability system automatically adjust the gap and correct the angle from a skid. Recent studies show that the electronic stability control is good at reducing single vehicle crashes.

  • Car structure: Sedan was designed to minimize the harm to the passengers in 1960. Its technology allows the automobile engineers to estimate the destructiveness of the automobiles in their computers. It helps them create safer structures. Today’s cars have a strong and rigid passenger cell. Front and rear crumple zones, structure around the cabin and the rigid passenger cell protects passengers by absorbing, spreading and reducing the energy or force generated when crashes oaccur so the the impact is minimal on passenger compartment. The front end of the modern vehicle may be damaged more than it was in the 1960s.
  • Air bags: General Motors in the USA was originally developed the feature in the late 1960s. These help reduce the injury and death in the event of crashes. The front air bags became very common in every new vehicle. Some cars that have full length have side air bags on vehicle window. These will protect passengers from head and upper body injury. The recent air bags technology allows the air bag deployment as per the severity of the accident.
  • Brakes and tyres: Today’s tyres have more grip levels even in wet weather than the 1960s. The disc brakes are more reliable than the previous drum brakes in normal times as well as in emergency. The anti-lock braking system prevents the lockup under heavy braking and allows steering control.

The invention and the development in car-safety are still going on. Night vision technology in cars, automatic emergency calling, etc., are available in some cars. Some are in development stage. These allow the driver and the passengers for a safer journey. (more…)

October 1, 2013

The Automotive Technology – Drive-by-Wire

Filed under: 2013,Technology — Tags: , — Ralph C Dreher @ 8:42 AM

This system is designed with the help of engineering management system for vehicles. This is world’s first steering technology that allows to control independently a vehicle’s steering inputs and also tire angle. By transmitting the steering inputs, to the tires by mechanical link, the steering system directs the movements of tire.

In future, technology of the steering control the tire movements of the vehicle by electronic signals by reading the driver’s intention from steering inputs. The future system will transfer drivers’ intention even faster to the wheels than the mechanical system, by quickly communicating road surface feed back to the drivers. It increases the direct driving performance. This system will provide necessary performance by avoiding the unnecessary road generated disturbances.

This system receives the frequency signals, that is, when the vehicle is moving. This system is also called “by wire” or “x by wire”. This system mainly relies on electronics and the wide range of vehicle operations will control by it that includes braking, acceleration and steering. This systems will have the potential to increase the safety, functionality, comfort during the drive.

If you replace the systems like drive by wire and conventional throttle system, it can reduce the number of moving parts in your vehicle significantly. This increases operational accuracy, decreases weight and stretches out the time between the service visits for maintaining things like mechanical and other adjustments and some other by wire systems does not require service at all.

To enhance the driving capability further, the Nissan has developed a system that is camera based straight line stability. By making small input adjustments, the technology improves vehicle stability. The vehicle will, then, accurately trace and it will continue as planned in the lane as it is traveling. Due to cross winds or road surface the vehicle direction will change and the system acts to minimize the effects of the conditions will result in reduced steering input from the driver. (more…)

September 20, 2013

Payment Methods in Internet Advertising

Filed under: 2012 — Tags: , , — Ralph C Dreher @ 8:57 AM

Payment methods in Internet advertising are very flexible. It is an understanding between the advertiser and the publisher to decide how the advertiser pays for the advertisement posted in publishers’ website. There are three ways in which an advertiser can pay the publisher. They are as follows.

Cost-Per-Mille (CPM) or Cost-Per-Thousand impressions (CPT)
“Mille” means 1000 in Roman numbers. In CPM/CPT, the advertiser has to pay the hosting website (publisher), when the number of users to the advertisement reaches 1000. The advertiser is not responsible for any crashes or malfunctioning in the publisher’s website. The advertiser need not pay if the number has not reached the 1000 mark.

It is helpful for businesses if the advertiser publishes the advertisement on any popular website where traffic of users is high. This makes the brand visible to many visitors.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
In CPC, the advertiser has to pay the publisher when the banner ad is posted on the publisher’s website and gets noticed by users and users click on the link of the advertisers ad from the publishers website.

Care should be taken while designing the banner ad. It should be attractive and informative to impress the visitor. Link of the company’s website must also be present on the banner, otherwise visitors might not visit the website. Make sure to post advertisements in websites that are related to your business.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA) or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
In CPA, advertiser pays to publisher only when visitor visits the advertisers website and performs some action in the site. Action here means a transaction with the company. This may be either registering or purchasing a product. The advertiser need not pay the publisher, if the visitor just clicked on the banner ad.

CPA has become popular, as the number of websites are in millions and competition is high for posting an ad. This is a fair method, as the company pays to publishers only if he gets any lead or sale. There are two more types of payment schemes within CPC. They are:

  • Cost-Per-Sale (CPS): CPS is the best payment method for advertisers because they can pay for the advertisement only if someone visits the website and purchases the product.
  • Cost-Per-Lead (CPL): In CPL, advertiser pays the publisher only if any potential customer visits the website and registers or orders a product which leads to a sale.

Fixed payment
Fixed payment is the oldest method of payment that was used during the initial stages of Internet marketing. In this type of payment, advertisers pay fixed amount either monthly or yearly to the hosting website for advertising their ad. This method of payment is hardly followed these days.

Of all the different methods of payment in Internet advertising, Cost-Per-Action (CPA) is beneficial for businesses. (more…)

September 19, 2013

A SWOT Analysis of Digital Marketing

Filed under: 2012 — Tags: , — Ralph C Dreher @ 9:47 AM

SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is one of the structured planning tools used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to a business. As digital marketing is getting more popular when it comes promoting businesses, it is worthwhile to consider a SWOT analysis. The analysis helps businesses make informed decisions and simplifies decision making. This article deals with SWOT analysis of digital marketing.

  • Strengths
  • Cost effective: Digital marketing is cost effective when compared to other means of advertising.
  • Fast and easy to reach: Advertising businesses happens on the Internet in a short period of time. Your products, services and special offers reach local and global quickly.
  • 24/7 operation: Services on the Internet are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This helps the customers purchase products/services at their convenient time whether it is day or night.
  • Customer relationship: Digital marketing helps businesses in building relationship with the clients, prospects and new customers by giving auto-response to their queries related to products/services.
  • Brand development: Digital marketing enables businesses to spread awareness of their product/service widely to target audience, and in the long run helps build brand image by performing consistently.
  • Real time results: You will get to see real time results of transactions by knowing the number of customers visited your website, how many of them have purchased from your site, and what the peak trading times are. It will help you know customers purchasing behavior and you could plan your business accordingly.
  • Weaknesses
  • Absence of physical presence: Some customers are hesitant to buy products online because they don’t get to check the product physically.
  • No direct seller-customer interaction: As transactions in digital marketing happen online without personal interaction between seller and customer, there is no direct interaction.
  • Vulnerable to fraudulent transactions: It will be difficult to evaluate the legitimacy of a transaction. Unauthorized people might access credit card, and other information to do online transaction. Of course, it has become foolproof today.
  • Opportunities
  • Strong online presence: In this digital age, Internet users are rapidly increasing day by day. Users are more comfortable in purchasing products online as it saves their time. They also get good deals when compared to offline purchases.
  • Global reach: You can promote your company’s products/services to audiences across the globe without any geographical barriers or constraints.
  • Level playing field: Digital marketing opens doors to all businesses irrespective of the size and the type of business.
  • Threats
  • Entry of competitors: In this competitive world, everyone wants to give their best and apply various Internet marketing strategies to promote their products/services to reach wide audiences. Competition is more intense in digital marketing.

(more…)

July 16, 2013

Domestic Cars and Foreign Cars in USA

Filed under: 2012 — Tags: , — Winson @ 3:19 AM

According to a survey conducted by “The Atlantic” website in August 2012, there are 439 cars for every 1,000 persons in the USA. That means the ratio can be drawn to 1 car for every 2.3 persons. These numbers clearly indicate that how essential a car is to Americans. Though there are different means of transportation in USA, people use their own cars instead of public transportation, irrespective of increase in gas prices. This is because cars are the most economical and convenient mode of transportation in USA.

As this is the situation in USA, the competition among the automakers in US is pretty high. There is demand for foreign cars in USA. This article discusses about the major car manufacturers of USA.

Major US car manufacturers
There are many major car manufacturers in USA and to name a few are Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Ford, Lincoln, General Motors, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet etc. Among them, the three big giants who are always on the top of the list and they are also known as the “big three” in automobile market of USA. They are:

General Motors

  • Established on 16 September, 1908 by William C.Durant and Charles Stewart Mott.
  • Headquarters in Detroit Michigan, USA.
  • Working in 156 countries.

Chrysler

  • Established on 6 June, 1925 by Walter Chrysler.
  • Headquarters at Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA.

Ford

  • Established on !6 June, 1903 by Henry Ford.
  • Headquarters at Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

In 2012, General Motors stood first for highest number of production and sales of cars in USA, while Ford and Chrysler shared fifth and twelfth places respectively. Foreign companies like Volkswagen, Toyota and Hyundai topped the list with second, third and fourth places respectively. These rankings clearly show how strong the competition between the domestic and foreign automakers is.

Minor US car manufacturers
Apart from these major car manufacturers, there are some more car manufacturing companies that are small in size, but yet noticeable. Some of them are Anteros, Aurica, DeLorean, Fisker, Mosler, Electro, Shelby American, Tesla, Zimmer, etc.

Why foreign cars are sharing top rankings with domestic cars in USA?
The invasion of foreign cars into the USA started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It all started with “oil crisis” in USA in the year 1973. This crisis made people opt for fuel efficient cars by some foreign manufacturers during that period. During the same period, domestic manufacturers had manufactured cars with design and manufacturing problems. This lead to the dominance of foreign cars over domestic cars and people are still in that belief that, foreign cars are better than domestic cars.

  • In 1977, General Motors got a bad reputation by the revelation of the news that they installed Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobile.
  • In the same period Ford released “Ford Pinto” and it was so vulnerable that there were reports and complaints from people that the tank exploded when it was hit from behind.
  • Unfortunately, Chevrolet released a flop model “Chevrolet Vega” during the same time with aluminum engine that got rusted very quickly.

These are some of the examples that gave foreign companies a chance to prove themselves in the US market.

Downfall of oil prices in mid 1980s accelerated the US automakers and the success of minivan in 1984 by Chrysler and fuel efficient K-cars raised the hopes of domestic companies.

However, American car manufacturers including the big three have taken lessons from the past experience and are taking measures to produce good cars.

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