How do you tailor vehicle dynamics and control systems to your customer's needs?

These vehicles are getting to be “smarter” than the people that are driving them. I get that these improvements are for safety, but sometimes that safety needs to be left to the person that’s supposed to be in control. When the electronics fail while driving it can be more dangerous than if the electronic wasn’t there. The assisted steering for example, when the electronic power steering assist goes out, it takes a body builder to turn the steering wheel. If it was a regular power steering rack, the pump goes out, the car can still be turned while in motion as if it still had power steering. Unless you drive slow, then you still have to use your power, but you can still turn the wheel. That was the only example I have characters for.

While I agree with the previous sentiment, I strongly believe that no one likes a "one-trick pony". One vehicle characteristic that I appreciate is the ability to give you as the driver choices - comfort shouldn't be sacrificed for agility and sportiness, since all these different things could appeal to everyone on different days or for different moods.

Feature-rich vehicles have become the norm of todays automotive offerings, but there's one simple, yet highly important aspect of the product we should take even more into account, and that's how it makes you feel, not only what it can do.

One aspect that has to be considered in today's market is the carry-over from of component, sub system or even plateforme. In this perspective the job is more about tuning rather than design new components. Tuning has to be performed in order for the overall vehicle (with it's inernia, Center of Gravity, mass...) to match the expected behavior and regulatory/standard obligations.

One of the most important aspects of this topic is compability, which needs to be broad, user customization, and probably most importantly - a long term sustainability plan to keep the system relevant and usable for many years to come, preferrably even a decade.

Get a good inside knowledge of the system that you want to control. If it is a SISO system or a MIMO system will be crucial when selecting the control algorithm. Also make sure that you are aware of the number of actuators that you want to control. Once you have a good insight, start with the basics, try the most simple controller that can cope with your system characteristics and then develop from that. This would be a good initial approach.

The key to this part is thorough contact with the customer, and the ability and openness to view and validate all feedback on many differents platforms and channels. Continuation and closeness to the source is important.