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Archive for the ‘Automotive’ Category

DUBLIN, Ga. (AP) — Gov. Nathan Deal says a $39 million German automotive plant will open in Dublin.

The Courier Herald in Dublin reports that Munich-based Erdrich Umformtechnik GmbH amp; Co.KG will bring 178 jobs to the area. The 130,000-square-foot metal stamping facility will be Erdrichs first US plant.

Erdrich is a family-owned company that manufactures complex metal parts for the automotive industry. The company will work with the states workforce training program, Quick Start, to get new employees ready for the plants 2013 opening.

Erdrich CEO Georg Erdrich said Dublin is a very pro-business community that will help the company establish its US presence. Erdrich has plants in Germany, the Czech Republic and China that supplies parts to companies like BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen.

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Information from: The Courier Herald, http://www.courier-herald.com

Automotive Rhythms Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary on Eve of the 2012 Washington Auto Show
Google, Yahoo and AOL’s top-ranked ‘Urban Automotive Experience’ continues to bridge the gap between consumers, top lifestyle brands and auto manufacturers across its multimedia and event platforms.

Automotive CEOs Plan Eco-Friendly Products, Green Jobs

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 23, 2012 (ENS) – Eighty percent of automotive CEOs see developing environmentally-friendly products or services as an important part of their companies innovation strategy, finds the annual survey of CEOs by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

On January 24, on the eve of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dennis Nally, chairman of the PwC network, will reveal the results of firms 15th annual global CEO survey.

The National Research Councils (NRC) Transportation Research Board has released a study that included a review of automotive electronics safety. The Research Councils study was requested in the aftermath of the 2009-2010 reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requested the NRC study of how the agencys regulatory, research and defect investigation programs can be strengthened to meet the safety assurance and oversight challenges arising from the expanding functionality and use of automotive electronics. To conduct the study, the NRC appointed a 16-member committee of experts tasked with considering NHTSAs recent experience in responding to concerns over the potential for faulty electronics.

This report likely assures that NHTSA will proceed with policy changes relative to automotive electronics review and safety. The recent security breaches or hacking activities in some vehicles increases the need for automotive repairs to be done by professionals, said Bob Redding, ASAs Washington, DC, representative. The automotive industrys effort with the National Automotive Service Task Forces (NASTF) Secure Data Release Model (SDRM) is an example of independent repairers working with automobile manufacturers to ensure vehicle security. We are hopeful that NHTSA will include independent repairers in the strategic planning process for automotive electronics safety.

There were a number of key findings from the study:

• Electronic systems have become critical to the functioning of the modern automobile.

• Electronic systems are being interconnected with one another and with devices and networks external to the vehicle to provide their desired functions.

• Proliferating and increasingly interconnected electronics systems are creating opportunities to improve vehicle safety and reliability as well as demands for addressing new system safety and cybersecurity risks.

• By enabling the introduction of many new vehicle capabilities and changes to familiar driver interfaces, electronics systems are presenting new human factors challenges for system design and vehicle-level integration.

• Automotive manufacturers visited during this study and probably all others implement many processes during product design, engineering, and manufacturing intended to ensure that electronics systems perform as expected up to defined failure probabilities and to detect failures when they occur and respond to them with appropriate containment actions.