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Now these hands on things you experience in your car every day or soon will.
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Number five is infotainment.
Seems pretty low for something which includes navigation.
Mobile devices, satellite radio, and apps and more, but I put Infotainment electronics rather low, because it still lags well behind our phones, in terms of scope and elegance.
And until that changes, it stays down here in the cellar.
Number four is lighting, Yes, General Motors ruled out smart lighting like autronic eye some 60 years ago, but it was like something out of a Flash Gordon movie, wonky!
Today, auto lighting electronics are solid, you may switch your new cars lights to automatic the first night you own it, and not touch them again for months.
Soon, smart beam shaping lights will arrive, which will utterly transform the way your car lights the road, not just when it does.
Number 3, keys and security, it used to be that when your car was getting boosted all they could do was sound an alarm that nobody cared about.
Today, security electronics actually try to stop the theft, not annoy neighbors.
Immobilizing the car's ignition, unless an electronic smart key is present.
And that same key is rarely handled today, thanks to electronics, just leave it in your pocket, and the car's door handles and ignition recognize you.
Even other settings may follow, but.
Based on the keys presence.
It's ironic that a key we barely have to touch anymore seems to be getting bigger and heavier all the time.
Number two is road sensing.
This is a big one.
It rolls up infrared, radar, laser, camera, and ultrasound to read the road.
Detect cars around you and even find and get into parking spaces alongside you.
It's moving us fast from a current world of driver assist to an imminent world of self driving cars.
The other side of the coin are the sensors that drive things like ABS, airbags, and stability control.
Those are the big three that have made huge reductions in many kinds of injuries and fatalities on the road.
Before I get to number 1, I can tell you it wont be climate control, in spite of having a lot of electronics behind it, it just doesn't seem to have made that much a difference.
Tell me you don't still fiddle endlessly with the heating cooling controls as you drive.
The number one way electronics has revolutionized cars lately is in the powertrain.
Today's engines and transmissions are run by computers instead of past technologies like carburetor adjustment or vacuum timing contraptions and voodoo transmission tweaks.
Electronics have made car powertrains more powerful, less fuel consuming, much cleaner and with ages between many service intervals.
This is also the main reason your car starts and runs the same every time.
Unimaginable a few decades ago.
And whether you drive a minivan or an M3, that appliance like quality is the electronic benefit you enjoy the most everyday.
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More top five lists to wake the car lover.
Go to CNETOnCars.com click on top five.
