Automotive engineering

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Automotive engineering, along with

Automobile engineering is a branch study of engineering^{[citation needed]} which teaches manufacturing, designing, mechanical mechanisms as well as operations of automobiles. It is an introduction^{[citation needed]} to vehicle engineering which deals with motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks, etc. It includes branch study of mechanical, electronic, software and safety elements. Some of the engineering attributes and disciplines that are of importance to the automotive engineer include:

Safety engineering:

Fuel economy/emissions:

NVH engineering (noise, vibration, and harshness): NVH involves customer feedback (both tactile [felt] and audible [heard]) concerning a vehicle. While sound can be interpreted as a rattle, squeal, or hot, a tactile response can be seat vibration or a buzz in the steering wheel. This feedback is generated by components either rubbing, vibrating, or rotating. NVH response can be classified in various ways: powertrain NVH, road noise, wind noise, component noise, and squeak and rattle. Note, there are both good and bad NVH qualities. The NVH engineer works to either eliminate bad NVH or change the "bad NVH" to good (i.e., exhaust tones).

Vehicle electronics:

Performance: Performance is a measurable and testable value of a vehicle's ability to perform in various conditions. Performance can be considered in a wide variety of tasks, but it generally considers how quickly a car can accelerate (e.g. standing start 1/4 mile elapsed time, 0–60 mph, etc.), its top speed, how short and quickly a car can come to a complete stop from a set speed (e.g. 70-0 mph), how much g-force a car can generate without losing grip, recorded lap-times, cornering speed, brake fade, etc. Performance can also reflect the amount of control in inclement weather (snow, ice, rain).

Shift quality: Shift quality is the driver's perception of the vehicle to an

Durability / corrosion engineering: Durability and corrosion engineering is the evaluation testing of a vehicle for its useful life. Tests include mileage accumulation, severe driving conditions, and corrosive salt baths.

Drivability: Drivability is the vehicle's response to general driving conditions. Cold starts and stalls, RPM dips, idle response, launch hesitations and stumbles, and performance levels.^[

Cost: The cost of a vehicle program is typically split into the effect on the variable cost of the vehicle, and the up-front tooling and fixed costs associated with developing the vehicle. There are also costs associated with warranty reductions and marketing.

Program timing: To some extent programs are timed with respect to the market, and also to the production-schedules of assembly plants. Any new part in the design must support the development and manufacturing schedule of the model.

Assembly feasibility: It is easy to design a module that is hard to assemble, either resulting in damaged units or poor tolerances. The skilled product-development engineer works with the assembly/manufacturing engineers so that the resulting design is easy and cheap to make and assemble, as well as delivering appropriate functionality and appearance.

Quality management: Quality control is an important factor within the production process, as high quality is needed to meet customer requirements and to avoid expensive

Another aspect of the development engineer's job is a trade-off process required to deliver all of the automobile attributes at a certain acceptable level. An example of this is the trade-off between engine performance and fuel economy. While some customers are looking for maximum power from their engine, the automobile is still required to deliver an acceptable level of fuel economy. From the engine's perspective, these are opposing requirements. Engine performance is looking for maximum displacement (bigger, more power), while fuel economy is looking for a smaller displacement engine (ex: 1.4 L vs. 5.4 L). The engine size however, is not the only contributing factor to fuel economy and automobile performance. Different values come into play.

Other attributes that involve trade-offs include: automobile weight,

Manufacturing engineers are responsible for ensuring proper production of the automotive components or complete vehicles. While the development engineers are responsible for the function of the vehicle, manufacturing engineers are responsible for the safe and effective production of the vehicle. This group of engineers consist of

Studies indicate that a substantial part of the modern vehicle's value comes from intelligent systems, and that these represent most of the current automotive innovation.[3]^[4] To facilitate this, the modern automotive engineering process has to handle an increased use of mechatronics. Configuration and performance optimization, system integration, control, component, subsystem and system-level validation of the intelligent systems must become an intrinsic part of the standard vehicle engineering process, just as this is the case for the structural, vibro-acoustic and kinematic design. This requires a vehicle development process that is typically highly simulation-driven.^[5]

The V-approach

One way to effectively deal with the inherent multi-physics and the

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