TRANSPORT
HOW CAR COMPUTERS WORK
Within almost every car is a high-tech computer controlling and monitoring how we drive
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD
Modern-day cars are packed full of sensors, microprocessors and different electronic control units (ECUs), which take care of different aspects of the car, including locking systems, automatic braking and monitoring engine efficiency. If you’ve ever seen the check-engine light flash on your dashboard, that’s the result of small sensors in the engine’s ECU alerting you to a change in one of the qualities it monitors, such as temperature or oxygen levels. Together, the ECUs create the car’s computer ‘brain’, all connected through a communication ‘nervous system’ called a controller area network (CAN). The CAN relays information gathered from up to 100 different sensors around the vehicle to each ECU so that the vehicle works in harmony.