Social Needs and Automotive Design - Keynote Address 811372
Viewing the development of automotive technology historically, we find its beginnings in the spontaneous, original invention of engineers. However, with the progress of motorization, market demand, i.e., consumer needs and preferences, has become steadily more important. Additionally, social needs, in the form of government regulations on safety and pollution have also become vital elements.
In the years since the oil crisis, the growing demand for greater energy conservation and the development of alternative energy sources for the future have become key problems for automotive engineers not only in Japan, but throughout the world.
Thus, the demands the times are making upon us are becoming increasingly more diversified. Successfully meeting this challenge will require a far higher level of pooling and sharing from the world’s automotive engineers.
