CAR BASICS
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
EV & HYBRID
SMART CARS, ADAS & SDV
CAR KNOWLEDGE & TRIVIA
100

This circular component is turned by the driver to control the vehicle's direction.

Steering Wheel

100

RPM is short for this measurement of rotational speed.

Revolution per minute

100

EV stands for this.

Electric Vehicle

100

ADAS stands for this.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

100

This Japanese automaker produces the Corolla.

Toyota

200

This instrument indicates how fast a vehicle is traveling.

Speedometer
200

This abbreviation commonly refers to an Electronic Control Unit.

ECU

200

This abbreviation describes a vehicle containing both an internal-combustion engine and an electric propulsion system.

HEV

200

This driver-assistance feature automatically maintains a selected vehicle speed.

Cruise control

200

This German automaker's logo consists of four interlocking rings.

Audi

300

In a gasoline engine, this component creates the spark that ignites the air-fuel mixture.

Spark Plug

300

This vehicle network protocol is widely used for communication between electronic control units.

CAN

300

This power-electronics device converts DC battery power into AC power for many traction motors.

Inverter

300

This sensor technology creates distance measurements using pulses of laser light.

LiDAR

300

This Italian sports-car manufacturer is associated with the Prancing Horse symbol.

Ferrari

400

This system transfers engine power to the driven wheels through selectable gear ratios.

Transmission

400

In the four-stroke cycle, these are the four strokes.

Intake, Compression, Combustion, Exhaust

400

This phenomenon describes gradual loss of usable battery capacity and performance over time.

Battery degradation

400

This technology allows functionality in a vehicle to be updated remotely through a network connection.

OTA / Over-the-Air

400

This motorsport series uses cars specifically designed for open-wheel, single-seat racing.

F1

500

This component converts the pistons' reciprocating motion into rotational motion.

Crankshaft

500

This engineering metric compares an engine's actual air intake with its theoretical displacement capacity

Volumetric efficiency

500

This thermal-management concern can occur when a battery cell generates heat faster than it can dissipate it, potentially triggering neighboring cells.

Thermal runaway

500

This newer architecture organizes vehicle electronics largely by physical location or zones, connecting them to centralized computing.

Zonal architecture

500

This aerodynamic force pushes a racing car toward the road as its speed increases.

downforce