By: cananeoy

cananeoy — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:06:14 +0000

Might Help…
http://www.ezedir.com/Article/Automotive/

By: fullband

fullband — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:06:13 +0000

Very thoughtful question. I think my top answer would be that the laws of physics governing the performance of automobiles haven’t relented to technological progress the way the laws of physics of semiconductors have.
Have you heard of Moore’s Law? It’s the notion that, since the advent of the integrated circuit, the number of transistors (roughly equivalent to the processing power provided by the circuit) doubles about every 20 months.
Each time the semiconductor industry gets to a hurdle that might interrupt Moore’s Law (feature size, signal propagation speed/coherence, power dissipation, etc.) some technological breakthrough occurs that makes the next generation of chips be more powerful while still economically viable to produce.
In terms of demand, I would guess that the number of computer chips produced world-wide in a year is maybe 1000 times the number of automobiles produced. Remember that nowadays, toasters and vacuum cleaners have processors in them. So the demand for chips is not only greater than for automobiles, it is growing at a much faster pace.
What’s different about building a car than it was 100 years ago? Mass is still subject to the pull of gravity (and safety concerns have led us to build more massive cars than ever before); surface area is still resistant to the wind exponentially; friction between surfaces still generates heat that is wasted energy. We haven’t had the kind of breakthroughs in overcoming these inefficiencies that we’ve had in semiconductors.

Comments on: Why Don’t Cars Technologically Advance At The Rate That Computers Do, When Car Demand Is Higher?

By: cananeoy

By: fullband