Introduction to Vehicle Technology and Origins of Digital Computing

Student’s Name
Professor
Course
Date
Digital Computing in Mechanization:
Vehicle Technology
Since mechanization took stand, technology in the use of machines has evolved tremendously. However, we cannot forget computers; they have contributed greatly to the success of this evolution. The early mechanical calculator and clock are examples of how far technology has come from. However, it is only part of the world experiencing these recursive changes; the same changes could not exist without history having informed the future. Most of the changes are dependent on how much the computers have changed. Vehicles have changed over time from starter crank to key ignition, air conditioning technology, GPS systems in vehicles. Just as “Mechanization Takes Command” by Sigfried Giedion explains, the recent technologies are taking human part and making human beings' lives better. This paper focuses on the proposed reading list, vehicle technology, and digital computing literature.
Introduction to Vehicle Technology and Origins of Digital Computing
Vehicle technology is anonymous since, it is hard to relate the old chariots with the recent engine system. Unlike computers, which seems to have had an informed history. We find most of the evolution as dependent on the early concepts and theories, an example is the Alan Turing’s theory on the processing power and ability of computers. The first vehicle built in 1886 had a starter crank handle. 1922 became another milestone considering vehicle technology evolution with the electronic ignition replacing the starter crank (Wright, 2020). 1949 marked another milestone when Chrysler introduced a key in the ignition. All this was an evolution in the vehicle ignition system. There have been more efforts put in the other sections of the vehicle technology like automation of most of the manual processes in a vehicle like the transmission becoming automatic from a manual selection of gears to vehicles becoming autonomous, called the auto-piloting to car entertainment inform of radios which were introduced in 1930.
Digital computing is the ability of digital devices to process information based on a discrete set of instructions initially written and stored in its memory (Atanasoff, 1984, 231). Computers have contributed greatly to the development process of the digital vehicle. The systems such as the one introduced to the Cadillac Eldorado connected computers known as networking. These devices consist of software given instructions, known as codes, to fulfill a certain action task. For networking, computing had to be involved (Wright, 2020). Vehicle technology is among the most evolved technologies, and hence it consists of more literature than any other theories, not forgetting how much computers have evolved.
The literature of the era that predated the Alan Turing Machine helps in the comprehension of Alan's contribution to the digital computing era. He described a digital computing machine as a machine consisting of a limitless memory and a scanner that moves back and forth, reading each symbol and writing more symbols (Doron, 2013, 39). The actions of the computer would be driven by a set of instructions stored in memory and the form of symbols. He also said that he wanted a machine that would learn from experience, and what would facilitate this was altering its instructions. During the second world war, Turing was working in the Government Code and Cypher School. At this time, he thought about machine intelligence (Doron, 2013, 39). Additionally, Turing never stopped to think about the possibilities of computing machines. He experimented with the heuristic search with the chess game, which later became standard technology in computer chess games.
According to “Technics and Time,” technicization produces loss of memory (Steigler, 1998, 3). It was meant to improve human existence, but instead, it presents a more confusing interface that it becomes impossible to keep track of memories. Arithmetic systems preceded history. The philosophical novelties changed to usable devices where things began setting with seriousness (Swade, 2013, 24). Unfortunately, history has diverted its attention on Babbage’s engines while his writings have been overlooked. Babbage’s writing greatly contributes to the need for a new branch of mathematics to optimize computation (Swade, 2013, 34). While digital computers are concerned, it is vital to present the generation of computers before discussing the implementation of digital computers on vehicle technology.
Generation of computers
The first-generation computers used vacuum tubes as a great piece of technology. Due to the use of tubes, the first-generation computer was large. It used to be called a supercomputer. ENIAC is a first-generation computer that occupied a whole room with nearly 20,000 vacuum tubes, 10,000 capacitors, and around 70,000 resistors (“Generations of Computers”, 2021). ENIAC weighed around 30 tons. It is easy to imagine how much space a computer weighing 30 tons would cover. The second-generation computer in the 1956-1963 period used transistors. It reduced in size since transistors are not large—the cost of building a computer reduced with the use of transistor technology. The first computer to use transistors technology was called TX-0, introduced in 1956. IBM 7070 was also among the computers that used the transistors. This generation of computers could not be implementable in vehicles if it still existed since they were large than a car.
Third-generation computers were seen in 1964-1971 when the integrated circuit was introduced. The ICs made the size of the computer smaller, and the performance enhanced. Integrated circuits are still being used in computers today; hence today's computer has deep roots in the third-generation computer. The fourth-generation computer saw the application of a microprocessor. However, microprocessors still consisted of integrated circuits. A computer that could fit on a desk was built in this generation, and the laptop generation saw a beginning. This generation is regarded to have ended in 2010 despite microprocessors still being utilized. Small computing devices saw a beginning during this generation.
The fifth generation of computers has embedded in the application of AI technology. The technology has developed to great heights on the tech scale, with computers like IBM’s Watson, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft Cortana. Google server systems are known to utilize AI technology to process user searches on the search engine. The current generation of the computer being used most is the fifth generation since AI is still developing. It is not yet mature until there exist signs of another new generation of computers.
Implementation of digital computers in Vehicle Technology
1999 saw the first laser adaptive cruise control in a vehicle. This system was first adopted by Mitsubishi (Wright, 2020). It used the throttle and transmission to control the car’s speed without engaging the brakes. Mercedes vehicle manufacturers introduced the Distronic system in the same year. This autonomous cruise control system is available worldwide. The system introduced the use of digital computers in machines. It was achieved due to the generation of small devices that were computable, such as the sensors. It had a great impact on vehicle technology as autonomous technology evolves to date. Among the technologies that have brought great impact and simplicity into vehicle technology, one would say that autonomous technology is first. Its precision, its specificity, and logic behind the technology are all dependent on computing. If computing did not exist, then some of these technologies would not exist too.
Before introducing digital computers, these machines still existed, but they were made using the analog theory. A digital computer is called digital because it can generate and process binary or encoded data. Analog representation of data was physical due to the understanding levels of human beings. Therefore, its structure would correspond with the one that is being represented. An example was the architect model. The number of clear plastic squares corresponded to the number of windows that would eventually be in that building.
James Thomson invented a mechanical wheel-and-disc integrator (Copeland, 2020). The machine was the foundation of analog computation. Later, Lord Kevin described a general-purpose analog machine to integrate linear equations and solve simultaneous linear equations. His most successful computer was the tide predicting machine. The wheel and disc integrator machines were in use during World War 1 for calculating the specifics of the gun operations. The first semi-automatic mechanical analog computer has been built in England by Manchester firm. Vanner Bush built the first large-scale automatic general-purpose mechanical analog computer, the differential analyzer. The mechanical analog computer became important to engineers in the vehicle production in the electrical circuit’s unit. It had the capabilities of accurately realizing the mathematical operations of summation. The major drawbacks of analog computers were the high cost of building them and maintenance. The engineer's in-vehicle technology started solving differential equations by producing electrical circuits that found solutions by the electrical analogy.
Due to the fast evolution of digital computing, the first consumer Bluetooth technology was available in the market2000/2001 saw Bluetooth technology being introduced in vehicles (Wright, 2020). Since then, it has become a standard requirement in a vehicle, making it rare to see a modern vehicle being sold without Bluetooth technology. However, in the 21st century, it does not seem to be a great technology in vehicles. One will not even recognize if the technology exists in a vehicle since many people have adapted to using a headset to pick up calls to play music and other stuff like sharing files. Acura TL was the first to have this technology installed in the United States. This technology was first integrated into vehicles to b...