VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

The 2016 Kia Forte highlights the car’s crash safety feature by automatically jolting a karaoke-singing day-dreaming woman from her alternate reality, preventing a rear-end collision.

The 2016 Volkswagon Passat commercial showcasing its crash- avoidance electronic sensors saves a young girl from “father embarrassment” at school drop off time.

as well as the pioneers in part interchange numbers. “As a technology company,” Arfi says, “we facilitate the interactions between our customer and our customer’s customer. Therefore, it is important to have our finger on the pulse of the future as related to the sale of replacement auto parts. Then, we help the customer use what we learn to their benefit.” Automotive Recycling magazine’s editor Caryn Smith

spoke with Arfi about his recent presentation to the 73rd Annual ARA Convention & Exposition atten- dees in Baltimore, Maryland, on the future of the vehicle as it relates to the auto recycling industry.

Hungry for More Automakers are responding at light speed it seems

to the consumer’s voracious appetite for technology in every area of their life. The smart phone keeps the consumer connected 24/7 and they want to stay connected in their cars, too.

With all this distraction, the National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Vehicle Safety Research has made its mission to strategize, plan and implement research programs to continually further the Agency’s goals in reduction of crashes, fatalities, and injuries. Their research is prioritized based on potential for crash/fatality/ injury reductions and is aligned with Congressional Mandates, DOT and NHTSA goals. Their Crash Avoidance and Electronic Controls Research Pro-

32 Automotive Recycling | November-December 2016

gram is seeking to develop a broad base of under- standing that can lead to introduction of advanced crash avoidance systems. With imposed government safety mandates, the consumer’s appetite for technology, and a shorter driver attention span, automakers are digitizing the car at rapid speed to meet demands. Besides handy driving features like the self-parking car, the self-stop- ping car, and the impending self-driving car, techno- logical advancements are also being made in emissions, comfort technology, and entertainment. “We are seeing amazing advancements in engines and transmissions, two key recycled part categories, such as the 2017 Ford F-150’s 3.5-Liter EcoBoost V6 engine. It offers 10-speed automatic transmission to deliver improved performance. This 3.5-liter EcoBoost is paired exclusively with the first volume- production 10-speed automatic transmission available from any automaker. We will see more advancements like this coming off assembly lines.” In fact in a 2015 Forbes.com article “Top 10 Advanced Car Technologies by 2020,” contributor Karl Brauer writes that based on his research at the CES and Detroit auto shows that the following are the top 10 technologies to watch for: autonomous vehicle, driver override systems, biometric vehicle access (unlocking your car with a fingerprint or, even, an eyeball), comprehensive vehicle tracking (insurance- driven innovation), active window displays (active glass capable of displaying vibrant images -- think video in a self-driving car or, as seen from a driver’s perspective, through the windshield), remote vehicle shutdown, active health monitoring (through seat belt or steering wheel monitoring), four-cylinder supercar (as in a V6 making over 600 horsepower), smart/personalized in-car marketing, and reconfig- urable body panels (an SUV/truck configuration at your fingertips with a few retractable panels). Imagine what all that would be like to dismantle

and recycle?

“The digital transformation of vehicles is definitely increasing. The era of vehicle innovation in technolo-