Honing Integration Skills
with a Wide Perspective on Technologies

Nobuo Okubo
President of the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, and Senior Advisor to the Board (Technology) of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

At present, as we face the year 2008, high technology is driving positive changes and achievements throughout Japan's domestic auto industry. The base that fosters this technology is the JSAE (Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan).. We asked Nobuo Okubo, Chairman of the JSAE and Senior Advisor to the Board (Technology) of Nissan Motor Co., about the relationship between evolution and automotive electronics and his outlook on automotive technologies in the future.

Nobuo Okubo graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Section of the Department of Engineering at Tokyo University in the year 1964 and joined Nissan Motor Co. He became the chassis design part vice-chief in 1986; assumed the office of car body integrated design department head in 1991; became the director in 1992; managing director in 1997; director vicepresident in 1999 and the CTO in year 2005. He became the Chairman of the Board of NISSAN SHATAI in 2004; FISITA Vice president (International Automotive Engineering Society League) and internal relation in 2005 and has been serving as the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan chairman since 2006.

started to study this electronics technology for the production of automobiles.
Moreover, all the functions, starting from the power train to the controlling of the machines of the automobile, have been replaced by electronics technology. This was made possible by the high performance and low cost offered by electronics. Auto engineers' early acceptance of electronics technology-starting with the adoption of engine control- could have been the reason behind the extensive adoption of electronics technology in the automobile.
Electronics were actually supposed to be phased out. However, in one case, it had been possible to reduce the cost of the same function to an extent of 30 to 40 percent within a period
of 5 years. I personally feel that this could not have been achieved by mechanical technology alone.
Proposal to use electronics technology (which is currently being used in controlling all the parts from engine to power train) for building a power train that includes electric train motors, or fuel-cell electric vehicles, is underway. Moreover, since car navigation has been accepted to some extent, we are entering into the element of "Information"-related hardware, such as infrastructure co-operation including communication outside car, and with this, the application of electronics
technology will become even more widespread. Although electronics accounts for 30% of car costs now, if the technology continues to advance at this pace, electronics will account for as much as 50% or 60%.

How do you bring in this concept?
If the electronics technology that is adopted in the car extends at this pace, automobile makers will also need a lot of people skilled in electronics. However, a large number of automakers' engineers are mechanical engineers while electronics engineers constitute only a meager 20%. Even
though it can be said that cars certainly belong to the mechanical-type of system engineering, for a technology that will account for 50% of future auto costs, employing 20% of people skilled in electronics seems absurd. If the software engineer -whose importance is increasing in the field of car development is included, then securing human resources for the future seems to
be the most pressing need. However, everywhere -from universities to the domestic electronics research base it can be seen that we are losing out and this is a source of great worry. Since
electronics engineers are in demand not only in the auto industry but also in
the entire domestic manufacturing business, it is essential that steps are
taken to attract engineers to the auto industry. Moreover, it is necessary to
further increase communication between the electronics industry and the car industry

For example, although there should be an Institute Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers for the electronics field as an academic organization to which electronic engineers of automobile field belong; and if it is identified that the ratio of electronics items in the car will increase in the future, then more electronics engineers from other fields should participate in
the JSAE. In the usual academic organization, although its role will be to aid in the evolution of the related technology, segmentation occurs along with the evolution of technology. The peculiarity of JSAE as an academic organization is in placing the attention on how to take in the evolved technology and apply that technology in automobiles. With respect to general electronics engineers, the JSAE represents an opportunity to see examples of the application of various advanced technologies in automobiles. I want the automobile industry to also see the latest electronics technology.

The peripheral technologies are taken in
　In the future production of automobiles without restricting ourselves to electronics- technologies of many other fields will also be required. For example, safety-related technology, such as lifesaving automotive air bags, etc., has become common, but the development of preventive-safety technology that has advanced the safety level of automobiles, by one level, is important. Although electronics technologies such as on-board cameras and various sensors, etc., are applied, if control and operations are carried out after considering the relation between the person and the car, then the safety level of the car is bound to rise. In this case, psychology and sociology, too, become the technological elements of car development. Moreover, the main means of transportation of senior citizens will eventually be the car, especially in places where the public transportation network is not as developed as in a city. However, if you wish to produce a car
that even an 85-year-old person can drive, it is only possible with mechanical technology and electronics technology. Actually, in the autumn meeting of the Automotive Engineering Society
in 2007, a discussion under the heading "A look at the image of future personal mobility" -regarding the necessary technological development for the car that is suitable for our senior citizens was held. Thus, the point of view that we cannot restrict ourselves to the current technological fields cannot be refuted. When I joined Nissan, the main concern was how to process
iron such as springs and valves, and that was dealt with by the automobile maker itself. However, as the technological field expands, the scope of developing products with the cooperation of the supplier has gradually widened. Even in the future, automobile technology will develop by taking in
peripheral technologies. The automobile is like an exhibition site where the technology of various fields is exhibited.

The engineers who can look through everything
We often hear that the domestic auto sector does well in comparison with other industries. From the point of view of technological development, the domestic auto sector isn't ahead of other industries because the application technology that builds various technologies into the car is at the basic level and not because some extremely advanced technology is used. This is not similar to the pharmaceutical industry, in which ups and downs occur with the development of one new
medicine. In the automobile industry, an insufficient technology can be supplemented by cross-licensing, etc. What is very important for an automobile engineer is his ability to carry out "integration", in other words, the assembly of the product using various technical fields. And, after that, it is all about understanding the demands of the general consumer who is the user. For instance, even when the cathode-ray tube display of the car navigation system is replaced with a liquid crystal display, it is OK to think about how it is possible to use the LCD in the product taking the user into consideration by setting clear goals and evaluating the functions of the liquid crystal display such as the viewing angle when sunlight falls on it. The number of enterprises that distribute the product development function to China and India, etc., for the reduction of labor cost in development, has increased over recent years. Actually, it is enough if the development of both hardware and software are carried out overseas if the development is in modular form.
However, if the car is to be finally completed at the domestic center development
base, it is necessary that the "integration" of various technologies is carried out by an engineer who has an in-depth knowledge of integrating various technologies into the car. Even for training such engineers, the role of automobile technology is becoming more and more important.

(Interviewer: Sang-Soo Pac)