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36 The PCB Magazine • September 2015 hicles on the road, such as an SUV, truck, or po- lice car. It also can spot a pedestrian, even if he is partially blocked from view by a parked car. The Tegra X1 is about the size of a thumbnail, but packs the computing power of a room-sized supercomputer from 10 years ago, said Dave Anderson, Nvidia's senior manager of automo- tive integration. Mercedes-Benz offered a glimpse even far- ther into the future. The carmaker says it imag- ined the F 015 Luxury in Motion concept from the ground up to serve as transport of the fu- ture. Passengers can rotate the bucket seats to face each other to socialize while the car auto- matically takes them to their destination. Inside the vehicle, the door panels have touchscreens, which respond to gestures and enable the pas- sengers to make video calls, browse the Web or keep up on social media. The LED lighting out- side the vehicle gives pedestrians visual cues to signal that it sees them and indicates whether it is driving autonomously (blue) or being driven by a person (white). Conclusion Today's average automobile has about 100 microprocessors controlling all aspects of ve- hicle operation, and this number is expected to double in the next five years. Looking at the above future trends from automakers, it is clear that the "computer on wheels" concept will continue to explode as innovation drives the next generation of the automobile. And our boards drive this innovation! PCB COMPuTER ON WHEELS continues Steve Williams is the president of the right approach consult- ing llc and the former strategic sourcing manager for Plexus corp. he is the author of four books, including Quality 101 Handbook and Survival Is Not Mandatory: 10 Things Every CEO Should Know about Lean. to read past columns, or to contact Williams, click here. figure 3: mercedes' f 015 luxury in motion concept vehicle. thE rIght ApproACh