When Nobuyuki Furui joined Toyota Motor Corp's electronics section in 1980, he had just 50 or so co-workers.
Things certainly have changed.
"Now there are five big electronics divisions with thousands of workers total," said Furui, a group manager at one electronics engineering division, surrounded by a display of Toyota's latest safety technologies at a facility near Mount Fuji.
Electronics have long since replaced mechanics in a car's braking and steering, for example, and will be used more as auto makers race to build cleaner and safer cars, while bringing more comfort and convenience to drivers.
"There's virtually no component that runs solely on mechanics now," said Takeshi Uchiyamada, a senior managing director in charge of vehicle technology at Toyota.
Already, high-tech sensors, radars and cameras are used for gadgets such as parking assist units, lane keeping and adaptive cruise-control systems, while electronics are also present in car navigation and remotely controlled lock functions.
But as car manufacturers move from "passive safety" to "active safety" -- for instance, alerting drivers to danger instead of simply reducing the damage from a collision with seatbelts and airbags -- the use of such parts will grow.
Thanks to this trend, global demand for car-use semiconductors rose 19 percent last year to US$14 billion, and is forecast to rise at an annual rate of around 10 percent in subsequent years, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
By 2007, chip demand for cars is set to reach US$20.91 billion.
That number could swell if gasoline and diesel-electric hybrids catch on faster: the niche vehicles, which use electric motors and battery packs to improve fuel efficiency, use twice as many chips as a conventional combustion-engine car.
Car makers are also using electronic controls in fuel injection units and other areas to help save fuel for conventional combustion-engine cars in ways that they say were not possible mechanically.
The use of electronics goes beyond safety and clean air.
By combining electronics with information technology, big car makers are also stepping up work on interactive transportation systems that could help smooth the flow of traffic and help drivers communicate with each other.
Car navigation and electronic toll collection systems are already common in Japan, but that could extend to electronic payment at petrol stands and drive-through shopping stops.
"Electronics are now vital to raise the value of cars," said Hironobu Kiryu, a chief engineer at Honda Motor Co. "Without them, there will be no progress."
The end of the road is distant. Car executives and engineers often talk of collision-free vehicles as their ultimate goal.
The trend towards more electronics has not only helped car parts makers that are dominant in the field, such as Visteon Corp, Bosch and Denso Corp, but also pure electronics makers like Hitachi Ltd, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and NEC Electronics Corp.
"The role of pure electronics makers could get bigger with this trend," said Koji Endo, analyst at CSFB Securities, adding however, that their roles would likely be secondary as long as auto makers remain protective of the initial breakthrough technology for an electronic car part.
To prepare for the spread of advanced safety and other features to lower-end cars -- most are now limited to luxury vehicles or as expensive options due to high R&D costs -- electronics firms are beefing up their car parts operations with the aim of getting more business from car makers.
In one of the boldest moves, Hitachi is set to absorb its car parts affiliate and unit later this year, aiming to double auto parts sales to ?1 trillion (US$9 billion) by 2010 or 2011 from this year's estimate.
Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate already has its own test track and supplies various products that have become standard features on most cars, such as ABS (anti-lock braking system).
With every major car component dependent on sophisticated software now, some say electronics makers may soon be able to build vehicles on their own. Car makers beg to differ.
"We car makers are often seen merely as assemblers of a collection of parts, but that's not true at all," said Yasuhiko Fujita, an engineer working on sensors and cameras at Honda.
"We come up with the technology we want from suppliers based on years of experience in building cars, and that's not something electronics makers can figure out on their own," he said, stressing that the relationship between car makers and electronics makers was cooperative, not competitive.
Rival Toyota isn't so sure.
"The line between car makers and electronics makers is extremely fuzzy," Uchiyamada said, noting that much of the development of new technology is done in-house.
"It's a race between us and them," he said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2