Lightweight automotive structures and autonomous vehicles - past, current and future

Automotive manufacturers have been aggressively implementing lightweight materials for fuel efficiency and occupant safety. The advent of various lightweight materials has made the process of deriving efficient lightweight designs for complex structures under multiple load conditions far more attainable than ever before.  Several lightweight materials (ultra-strength lightweight steel, aluminum, magnesium and composite) and manufacturing processes for automotive body structures will be reviewed. Several joining technologies for similar and dissimilar materials will be discussed. One of the Ford Performance vehicle GT (2003) used lightweight materials and several new manufacturing techniques were investigated to manufacture the Ford GT. Vehicle manufacturers are transforming their current semi-autonomous vehicles into fully autonomous vehicles. First autonomous vehicle was demonstrated in 1980s, since then, there has been lot of progress in this arena.  Some automakers are doing autonomous vehicle by themselves and some are going by collaborative approach. In this paper, we will review the past, current and feature state autonomous vehicles and technologies.  Even though autonomous vehicle technology is viable, however, there is more to be done in terms of regulations, infrastructure, liability insurance, etc...   Currently, many automakers and consumers are concerned about the reliability and safety of autonomous vehicles on local and highways due to lack of regulations. The seminar will also review the enabling technologies that support the autonomous vehicle technologies.  Some of the challenges that are automakers for autonomous vehicles will also be discussed.