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Oculus Spirit [97703]

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The vast majority of our chips, used in cars, are sourced

Jan 3, 2022, 9:24 AM

from places that locked down FAR more than we did. Taiwan and Singapore mostly. Cheap chips come from there. BUT, they get their raw materials for chips from....China, who is insanely locked down in places. Meanwhile, we're tossing money at people and are pretty much functioning normal. It's a recipe for disaster. Globalism is being exposed from the pandemic. Biggest economic concern since day 1.

It's a problem we have always been exposed to, more and more over the decades. Chasing ever cheaper debt, all those plants in the US that are closed, that used to make something we use, and is now made by someone else whose labor is cheaper, in another country, and we are at the mercy of that other country to provide what we once provided for ourselves. The risk is you lose control of supply, the reward is you get a cheaper end product. Well, that's all well and good until you go to war with them, or a pandemic, or something happens where they can't supply what we once supplied ourselves. This isn't just chips. It's steel, raw materials, happy meal toys, all toys, electronics, and even if we assemble our own cars, the parts we source from others. Textiles. Appliances. We have plants in the US, some foreign owned, and all they do is assemble parts shipped in from their parent country/plants. Then they sell it in the US. Haier plant in Camden here in SC, they made nothing there. All that plant did, with local workers, was piece together what couldn't be pieced together in China, then they sold it in the US.

Textile company, in the upstate.... Talked to the owner of that company a decade or more ago. He had an injured worker. Well, through that I learned they had a total of ELEVEN employees. 11. Interviewed the owner in a small office in a strip mall complex next to a MASSIVE shuttered textile plant. He once has literally thousands of employees in SC, in the shuttered textile plant right next door. He still has thousands of "employees", in another plant, in Guatemala. In the US, he has 11 insured employees. They are all warehouse workers, and he has two warehouses, one on each coast. They take and distribute what they make in Guatemala, for sale in the US. And he got emotional when he mentioned that he had to close the plant because the company would have gone bankrupt otherwise. Their competitors all went to central America, and could undercut his prices, and he literally had no choice but to play the game or go bankrupt. It wasn't a choice for him, or his employees really. This same scenario has played out throughout the entire domestic textile industry over decades. Over time it has decimated our middle class, once built on manufacturing. It has also heightened "wealth inequality". Those who make money on foreign, cheaper labor, and debt, profit the most. Those who rely on their own labor, are penalized because they have foreign labor/wage pressures on their domestic job.

Anyway, chips aren't going to be normalized for a while. Automakers need to adapt instead of throwing in the towel on production. Make a car that would never sell or be competitive 5 years ago. Because I promise it will sell over the alternative of no new cars and a $30K+ used car.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/micron-warns-dram-chip-delays-due-chinas-xian-lockdown-2021-12-29/

Samsung, Micron warn Xian lockdown may disrupt memory chip manufacturing

Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology , two of the world's largest memory chip makers, warned that strict COVID-19 curbs in the Chinese city of Xian could disrupt their chip manufacturing bases in the area.

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Here's a good article.

https://www.chipsetc.com/computer-chips-inside-the-car.html

Computer Chips inside Cars

History of Computer Chips used inside Cars. Examples of Computer technologies used in automobiles are shown from images of items from our computer memorabilia collection.

The engine control is very impressive which I would guess has to be done with a very fast chip because of all the calculations and data storage. The O2 and intake air temp sensors are sending real-time feedback so the amount of fuel can be adjusted via the fuel injectors (to achieve correct air-fuel ratio). Magnetic sensors sense the crankshaft rotation so the computer knows where every piston is in its cycle. Your gas pedal is probably just sending a signal to a motor telling it how far to open the throttle valve. Actually, the computer decides exactly how far to open the valve based on the driver's "request" for power. Every cylinder is checked every time a spark is supposed to go off - if it does not, then a misfire is reported. Knock sensors will determine if fuel is detonating prior to the piston being top-dead-center. If it is detonating early, the computer will adjust timing to try and prevent the knock.

In some cars a second O2 sensor after the catalytic converter checks satisfactory operation of the cats. Then you have all the special case scenarios like engine warm up where oil and water temperature are not yet at steady state. Many of the controls will change to facilitate start-up and warm up. Some cars will occasionally burn gas vapors built up in the system.

All this stuff happens in microseconds. It is quite remarkable how sophisticated it is.

Ever had your car go into "limp" mode? The computer basically only allows low-speed operation so you can get home.

Chipless cars would have crappy efficiency unless we developed chipless ways to emulate today's sophisticated engine controls.

Deer Detroit....

Re: Deer Detroit....

Been driving many years. Every year more bells and whistles

Hard to meet those MPG standards

We now have a good idea what not supplying it looks like***

Nike isn’t supplying anyone

The vast majority of our chips, used in cars, are sourced

Paid $34k for my 2021 Tacoma TRD Sport ($37k sticker)

Re: Paid $34k for my 2021 Tacoma TRD Sport ($37k sticker)

Re: Deer Detroit....

You say that...

I don't have a heated steering wheel.

Have I got a car for you.....

Need heat, AC, power steering, a radio

Heated seats are the tids!

Wife's last three cars had them.

That's fine, give me all the chips.***

Re: Deer Detroit....

My only complaint about my project car...

What year is that S class?

I asked "How much for a car that doesn't check my blind

Re: Deer Detroit....

I'm the opposite. I want as much technology as I can get

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