8 The PCB Magazine • September 2015
by Patty Goldman
i-connect007
patty's perspectiVe
Cars, Cars, Cars!
FEAturE Column
By a show of hands, who has seen the 2006
Disney/Pixar-animated film Cars? My guess is
that most of you have, especially if you have
kids. Do you recall thinking, "Yes, this could
really happen!" If not, did you think of the film
as science fiction, or maybe just fantasy?
Well, guess what, it isn't so far-fetched any
more, aside from the cute car faces and actual
talking. And probably some of the more out-
landish stunts or getting mad and racing each
other is also a stretch. But, oh my goodness—
automobiles communicating with each other
and driving themselves? I believe we're there.
Unless you ha
ve been on another planet
or far, far away, you could not have missed the
almost daily news items on self-driving cars,
new electronic gadgets for cars, new safety fea-
tures…and almost as many items about recalls,
including this one in a recent Sunday edition
of the Pittsburgh Tribune: Carmakers scramble
to keep hackers from becoming hijackers. And
how about this one: Detroit Meets Silicon Val-
ley, which talks about Americans' two passions—
cars and technology—cooperating and compet-
ing. In fact, the jump title (in the newspaper ver-
sion) was, "Geeks, gear heads share fate."
There's not just slightly more electronics in
automobiles—the electronics are increasing ex-
ponentially. And all those exciting new features
have as their basic building block (ta da!) print-
ed circuit boards, components and assemblies.
And if you haven't figured it out yet, that's the
subject of all three of our I-Connect007 maga-
zines this month: Cars—a Driving Force in Elec-
tronics.
We've got quite a line-up right here in The
PCB Magazine. First up, Jason Marsh of Insulec-
tro gives a thorough overview of the automo-
