NEWZ: The Emerging Market For Automotive Hard Drives

LunarMist

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...bringing a whole new meaning to a hard drive crash, I presume. It is just more crap to malfunction after a few years.
 

RWIndiana

Learning Storage Performance
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I thought cars worked just fine before we had all that computerized junk? What next? Will we probably have to use computers and hard drives in our can openers, perhaps to make sure we don't open any more cans than we are authorized to open . . .
 

Onomatopoeic

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From last month -- a bit of an update on the subject of Hard Drives For Automobiles:

  • EE25 Series Disc Drives Hit The Road

    The EE25 Series disc drive is Seagate's first drive designed specifically to meet the needs of the global automotive industry and other "extreme environment" applications. EE25 Series is targeted at automobile OEMs and their system manufacturers as well as to ruggedized mobile computing and industrial PC applications. High capacity 20 and 40 GB capacity points will deliver massive storage...

    Extended operating temperatures will enable the EE25 Series to reliably deliver digital information whether in Scandinavia or Singapore. The world's first hard drive with extreme environmental resistance that can operate in temperatures from -30 to 85 degrees C and in high-humidity and high-altitude environments...

    Similarly, the drive's increased resistance to operating vibration of up to 2.2 Gs withstands the constant vibration of automobile operation while streaming navigation, entertainment and data services...


http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,,2731,00.html


PDF sales literature:
http://www.seagate.com/content/docs/pdf/marketing/PO-EE25.pdf

 

LunarMist

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I still think the drives will crap out within the first 7 years. We shall see...
 

Fushigi

Storage Is My Life
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I don't think that operating temp range is useful to automotive applications. -30C is -22F. I've driven cars several time in temps below that. The 85C/185F temp is probably fine as long as the HD isn't in the engine bay.

And as LM said, I would be highly suspect of the HD lasting anytihng near the longevity of the modern car.

Now, if all it's used for is to store MP3, fine. But for anything that part of the mission-critical functioning of the auto, I don't see it.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
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These will last all of a week on New York's wonderful potholed streets. Solid state storage is a much better choice. The cost and capacity will be here within a few years as well.

The one electronic option I'd like to see in autos is still nowhere in sight. Namely, automated driving. I'd like to see that phased in over the next ten years, and thereafter manual driving will no longer be an option. All these other gadgets in cars are doing is making driving less safe by creating more distractions. It's time to add something that actually makes cars much safer instead.
 

freeborn

Learning Storage Performance
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Imagine what a car with a fair amount of storage can offer.
Here are some things which should be possible with a good storage system:

1. Real time monitoring and data logging of all inputs. With this you can bring the car in for service and the technician would be able to immediately download the life history of your car and with some good software determine what needs attention and diagnose many abnormalities.

2. Real time navigation system with continuous updates for traffic conditions and construction.

3. Entertainment subsystems which can link to your home system when you are home downloading new media, mail, etc.

Those are the top ones I can think of but to realize even the first you need to have a good storage system mated to the car at the factory.

Who knows what type of storage that will be in the long run but I think adding storage to a car will benefit the owner of the car in many amazing ways.

Free
 

Fushigi

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For 1, a 1GB NVRAM solution is plenty. And I'd highly doubt retaining a vehicle's entire service history in the vehicle itself would be ideal. I'd think you'd want it to auto upload the data at each service interval instead.

For 2 & 3 you're talking data delivery to the vehicle; the only local storage you need is for caching.
 

LiamC

Storage Is My Life
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Slightly O.T.

I wonder how many modern cars would be drivable after an airburst EMP?
 
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