Modern cars have more computing power than jets?
By Justin Couture, Sympatico/MSN Autos
Cars like Benz's S-Class are advanced, but just how advanced might surprise you. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) Modern cars are complicated, technologically advanced machines. This really shouldn't much of a surprise, especially when you consider that many cars now feature gadgets like radar cruise control, adaptive damping, continuously variable transmissions and other such technologies.
But just how much technology and computing power a modern car has might surprise you. It certainly astonished me.
According to the IEEE Spectrum, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer's magazine, a high-end, premium car can have one hundred million lines of code, running on upwards of 70 microprocessors.
By comparison, the F-22 Raptor jet fighter has 1.7 million lines of code, and the 787 Dreamliner – Boeing’s latest and most advanced passenger jet aircraft - has 6.5 million lines of code.
The COMAND navigation system used in Benz's S-Class (pictured) has the same sort of computing power as an Airbus A380. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) To put that into further context, consider that the COMAND navigation and radio control used in Benz's latest S-Class runs on 20 million lines of code and contains as many processors as an entire Airbus A380! But it isn't as if it's only the most expensive cars on the planet that have a lot of computing power; the figures are still impressive for a low-end car which can contain 30 to 50 microprocessors that govern its engine, transmission and other vital components.
