joeyr

The Little Private Car Company that Could outlines its technological future


By Frank Markus

In an attempt to prod some good-news reporting out of us automedia types, Chrysler LLC held a unique technology press event at its Auburn Hills Tech Center attended by not only the product development EVP Frank Klegon and several of his direct-report veeps, but also president Tom LaSorda, vice chairman Jim Press, and his boss Bob Nardelli. The hourly value of the gathered talent on this one afternoon probably would've paid for a 30-second spot on "Late Night" with Letterman, but it would've just been TiVo'd out anyway. We were introduced to and allowed to experience several announced and pending product innovations the brass assert will help keep Chrysler operating on the industry's leading edge even as the company's headcount shrinks.

During a design-dome walkaround with engineers presenting key new technologies, Bob Nardelli made a point of interjecting pointed "questions," designed to illuminate key advantages vis--vis key competitors and perhaps to let us know that he's fully transitioned from lumber-drywall-plumbing-guy to car-guy. During the pointed Q&A session that followed, he acknowledged that the redundancies removed during the integration with Daimler left some holes at Chrysler LLC, but he assured the gathered crowd that the company is restoring those deemed mission critical, while employing joint ventures (like the 2-mode Hybrid system developed with GM, which rolls out soon on the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen), alliances, and partnerships to cover others. Battery development is an area ripe for partnership, said Frank Klegon, and one in which some intriguing non-traditional players have expressed keen interest in teaming with a private firm like Chrysler. Jim Press suggested the product lineup may still be a smidge top-heavy in the SUV realm and light on small efficient cars, and that future product planning efforts will seek to spread the limited number of nameplates Chrysler can afford to market across a broader spectrum of the market to improve overall reach.


Knowledge-Based Engineering
The tech presentation led off with a new computer-engineering aid credited with compressing the Challenger's development time to just 21 months and allowing it to beat the Camaro to market. The proprietary software, developed in-house, is programmed with all the engineering knowledge and best-practices information gathered in previous development programs. Starting with a completely digitized Dodge Charger, the software "morphed" the chassis into a shortened two-door Challenger, redesigning every part that needed to change. The model broke the car up into 800,000 elements with about five million degrees of freedom, and then ran crash tests involving about a trillion calculations each. Each test took only a matter of hours, each iteration of the test contributed to the "knowledge base," and by the time the first prototype parts came out of the tools (made directly from computer data), the car met all crash standards.

Not only that, but the assembly process was known and all the parts fit together, because the computer automatically checks the new parts for fit, welding, and assembly access, etc. Most of the aerodynamic analysis was done before the first full-size clay was available, enabling the 25-percent improvement in drag compared with the 1970 Challenger it so closely resembles. Mr. Nardelli swears KBE won't be used to further reduce engineering head-count, but clearly it allows the company to do more with less and/or do it faster.


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In-Car Infotainment
Bob Nardelli says Chrysler needs to "make the vehicle your favorite room in th

DSkippy

Excellent article. I like this as well! Well if they can only produce a few good looking cards, at least they're tricking them out.

anthem SS

I'm sorry, i MUST be getting old but when did all this crap become nessesary to have in a car.
It seems that every gen X,Y, Z, and whatever letter they want to use has to have every friggin' conveience at there finger tips, the thing is most do this as they're driving - hence my insurance rates going up.
What the heck happened, you used to get in a hot car, put the radio up, do a burnout maybe as you left, and went down the road listening to your engine & exhaust going to your buddy or girls house.
It really is a Starbucks friggin' world!

Justinec101

Well I'm not sure which generation I'm in (22) I think it's Y but I don't want most that crap in my car. Give me a cd player and a/c and I'm happy.

What happens is Lexus or Mercedes invents some new technology to put in cars. It costs a lot but the old guys have gotta have it to show off down at the country club. But as usual, the price of technology drops like crazy and now they can put this feature into top model toyotas or chryslers. Then the price drops even further and chrysler's gotta compete with that loaded corolla and suddenly you've got calibers with heated cupholders. 5 years go by and when you're out Versa shopping that car that used to be 10k is suddenly 14k because they've loaded it up with this stuff that used to be an option on a lexus.

I don't think it's really people demanding this stuff in their cars. But once you've lived with something it's hard to give it up. TV? Internet? Airbags?

DSkippy

I'm Gen X and recently have turned my 1 hour 15 minute commute into a one hour commute. Still, I spend 10 hours (barring no traffic jams on 287 or 78) a week. That equates to 40 hours a month, and approximately 410 hours a year (5 weeks vacation and 8 holidays). That over the next 16 years will work out to be 6560, that divided by 24 will be 273 DAYS spent in my life before I retire that's from now to then.

So, if you had to be locked in a car for 273 days, wouldn't you want some cool stuff to ease your pain? Hell, back in the dizzy, you also had to crank start your car, there was no a/c other than the non-existent roof. Then they started to closing them up, controlling the climate, they even put a radio in them, well when I visit my baby boomer mother, she's still on "close enough to be dial up to be called dialup sub 150kbs" i-net connection. I don't long for the good old days. Anything they can put in to make a ride more enjoyable I say offer it.

I still want a 3 prong a/c "regular electrical" outlet in them (inverter built in for the wondrous gadgetry).

As for insurance, I've been involved in one accident (my fault; too many 16 hour days at work bookended by 1.5 hour -even worse at that job commutes- in too much of a rush, pulled into an intersection before the pickup in front of me cleared the intersection and he just cleared the car that hit me) and had 3 tickets (one on a motorcycle; naively I thought they didn't mind us two wheeled maniacs being a little liberal w/ the throttle), so I wouldn't be one the contributors to that hike I don't think.

Don't get me wrong, if they offered a stripped down no frills big hemi econo muscle car, I'd get that, but I certainly wouldn't be a Luddite either.

"Why back in my day, if you were hot in the summer, you opened the window on the back porch and sweat" ...nah...no thanks....