Re: Insider trading?
What is it about the 21st century that means that cars have previously unheard of reliability, safety and mpg
Computer aided design, mainly. If you think about a 1996 Fizzy, it was essentially much the same as the original 1976 Fiesta with a few trim and drivetrain changes. Development of the Mk 1 Fiesta started in 1972. So although Ford would have had some access to mainframe computing, its actual application to any detail would be minimal, experience of CAD would be non-existent. So everything was engineered by guesswork, fag packet and a slide rule if you were lucky.
Now take any modern car, and chances are that there's no important components more than eight years old, so in addition to much tighter regulatory standards, every aspect will have been developed on digital systems. Along with much more advanced automated production methods, this means cars are far better optimised in the design stage, the whole vehicle can be computer tested before it has even been prototyped, and the actual production is better and more consistently built to much higher tolerances. Optimisation goes right down to levels of R&D and testing like the flow and combustion of fuel in the cylinder. Back in the days of the Mk 1 Fizzy, it was a case of letting the engine suck a rough mix of fuel and air through a carburettor (remember them? What a piece of sh1t technology), hoping that the mechanical distributor caused the spark plug to fire at roughly the right time, and that would do.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
