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Car companies, starting with Volvo last summer, have laid out plans to electrify entire lineups of vehicles. But the fine print makes it clear that the coming decade and beyond will focus not just on massive battery packs powering electric motors, but also on adding a little extra juice to the venerable internal combustion engine.
Increasingly, that juice will arrive in the form of new electrical systems built to a 48-volt standard, instead of the 12-volt systems that have dominated since the 1950s. Simpler than Prius-type drivetrains and less expensive than Tesla-scale battery power, the new electrical architecture both satisfies the demands of cars made more power hungry by their gadget load and enables the use of lower-cost hybrid drive systems.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/electric-cars-48-volts.html
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @04:09PM (5 children)
Well, there you have it: a reason why new cars have to be serviced at the dealer, a reason why a $3 toggle switch can now be billed out at $87.
Solid state has nothing to do with that. A switch at the dealer is going to be expensive regardless, because it's a product with no competition, as each one is unique to the automaker (and maybe model of car). And then the local dealer marks it up even more because they can: that one is basically a "stupid tax", which you pay if you're too stupid to use a web browser and buy one online.
With much lower currents going through the mechanical portion, solid state switches can last longer than the old kind.
Lights: all LED, similar reasoning.
LEDs generally last the life of the car.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 26 2018, @08:10PM (4 children)
Nice thought, and true for the light emitting junction, however: contact corrosion, wire and insulation failure, and a half dozen other things can cause a light to fail, requiring replacement of the lamp module and more.
Sure, they could hard-solder the contacts, but will they?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @08:47PM (3 children)
Those things all apply to incandescent bulbs too. LEDs remove the biggest failure point: the bulb itself, plus they eliminate the crappy connection at the bulb itself: with LEDs, you use a much more modern automotive connector to interface the wire harness to the lamp module, instead of being stuck with a decades-old bulb design.
They've had LED lights on cars now for a couple of decades, starting with the CHMSLs (the 3rd brake lights), and some cars have had LED main brake lights for quite a while too. Have we seen significant failures with these? I doubt it.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 26 2018, @08:54PM (2 children)
Define significant...
I've definitely seen half-functional LED lamp modules driving around.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @09:55PM (1 child)
Well in that case, it sounds like the individual diodes failed, rather than there being a problem with the wiring, connections, etc. LEDs do age and fail over enough time (less if the LED is driven closer to its limit).
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:16AM
Sometimes an individual diode, more often half a panel... and let's not even get into those LED matrix billboard signs.
🌻🌻 [google.com]