Cars are increasingly being automated, and have been using semiconductors to do so. Control is being exercised by microcontrollers — these consist of microprocessors and some peripherals, essentially semiconductor devices.

The amount of fuel released to the engines is governed by microcontrollers. Then we can think of brake control, automatic seats, windows, mirrors and human-machine interface (HMI) display — all controlled by microcontrollers. Semiconductors govern the powertrain, body control, steering system, infotainment, and telematics.

An entry level car may have 15-20 such microcontrollers, and a high-end car has more than 100. Electric vehicles (EVs) have more electronics than an IC engine car. To make things more productive, Industry tries to use lesser chips or semiconductors to do more work. It is an issue of car architecture — in central architecture, there are lesser chips than in distributed architecture.

Microcontrollers used in cars operate in a wide temperature range — from freezing to very hot temperatures.

These microcontrollers are mounted on a printed circuit board which is subjected to intense testing — tests related to vibrations and voltage fluctuations.

These microcontrollers are sourced from suppliers such as Bosch or Continental.

There are software codes to operate a particular function of a car and the microcontrollers makes that code interact with the physical control.

In connected cars, there is more use of semiconductors. These have an in-built eSIM, and voice-based navigation, air quality monitoring, remote engine start.

The software running on tiny chips of the size of a thumb help us to operate an automated car.