| General > General Technical Chat |
| Cars, the chip shortage and old tech |
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| station240:
https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/china_probes_automotive_silicon_distributors/ --- Quote ---Chinese antitrust watchdog, State Administration of Market Supervision (SAMR), announced Tuesday it has started investigating price gouging in the automotive chip market. The regulatory body promised to strengthen supervision and punish illegal acts such as hoarding, price hikes and collusive price increases. SAMR singled out distributors as the object of its ire. --- End quote --- |
| Bicurico:
To me shortness of supply often comes hand in hand with a too small price the purchaser is willing to pay: if Volkswagen, as mentioned in the article, is not able to sell a $50.000,00 car due to lack of a $0,50 electronic component, I wonder if said component would be available at $1,00. Kind of reminds me when companies say that they cannot find labour. How about paying a decent salary and offering a decent work environment? |
| eti:
Cars did and still can work perfectly well without any silicon. All this “smart” junk is not necessary to fire up an internal combustion engine. Just make cars without it - it is a MECHANICAL device. |
| dmills:
And an engine is perfectly viable without ANY electrics never mind electronics, had one like that on a boat. Compressed air bottles to start, then mechanical injection pump with a rack operated by a mechanical governor, did just fine. Basically the politicos could fix the problem for the car industry by simply telling the relevant department to dust off the construction and use regulations from say 1975 and make them current... Yea, fuel efficiency would suck, and London (and LA) would wind up looking a little hazy (Oh and airbags would probably not be a thing), but you can build vehicles that way. Come to think of it, even an airbag is possible, mass and buckling spring as a sensor, a metal azide fired by the buckling spring, then shock tube up to the charge, probably be more reliable then some of the modern ones to boot. |
| mikeselectricstuff:
--- Quote from: eti on September 23, 2021, 07:26:17 am ---Cars did and still can work perfectly well without any silicon. All this “smart” junk is not necessary to fire up an internal combustion engine. Just make cars without it - it is a MECHANICAL device. --- End quote --- Except it isn't practical to make a purely mechanical engine to meet modern emissions limits and safety standards (e.g. ABS) at a sensible cost. And car customers expect all sorts of convenience gadgets, so no car without them would sell. |
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