User Experience Erupts
1973-1992
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In 1973, Congress passed more amendments to the Clean Air Act. These amendments enforced the use of "catalytic converters and the testing of converters every 50,000 miles by 1975": GM had these converters installed in almost every new car within a year surprising everyone.
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Only just one year later a partner company of GM; Honda created the CVCC engine which met the amendments without the need for catalytic converters.
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These adaptations to the Clean Air Act as well as the catalytic converters have enabled a greater user experience for those customers that had previously had to deal with the lead in the gasoline.
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Only one later after the resolution of the Clean Air Act automobiles began to see digital dashboards. The first truly digital dashboard was seen in the Aston Martin Lagonda.
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The original Ford Model T only had one ammeter only showing a top speed of 45 mph. On the Lagonda, "three screens replaced traditional instruments including the speedometer and tachometer".
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This would be the birth of User Interface within the digital aspects of car technology as not even ten years later the first in-dash CD players would make their debut. This advancement will ultimately be the beginning of our digital experience in cars today.
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In 1988, Chrysler ended a 20-year-long battle over the use of airbags within their vehicles, and by 1990 they will be standard in all of their models.
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Airbags were only available on some luxury end cars but now they will be standard as Chrysler had already put them in six of their models for no extra charge as customers feel safer with them in the car.​
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Mauro Del Signore patented and re-invented parking sensors in 1992 which were electromagnetic sensors that relied on the vehicle moving slowly in order to detect the object.
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As the vehicle gets closer the tone of the signal will become louder and regardless of if the car is in motion or not, there will still be a response from the system.