Computer 'helps car get serviced'

The specially-adapted Fiat is driven over a servicing pad

A specially-adapted Fiat prototype car which can "inform" mechanics about which parts need servicing has been unveiled by university engineers.

The car has a special tag attached to its engine parts in a system designed by engineers at Cambridge University.

The vehicle is then driven at low speed over a one-metre square servicing pad, which is fitted with an ultra-high frequency reader and four antennae.

It checks which parts are old and may need to be replaced.

As the car passes over the pad, the readers transmit the identity number from the electronic tags to a computer.

By cross-referring this information with a computerised database - for example, one showing the parts date and manufacturer - mechanics would be able to identify those parts that needed to be checked for wear at the click of a mouse.

'Great benefits'

The system was presented this week at a European technology exhibition in Strasbourg.

Professor Duncan McFarlane, from the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing, said: "Ultimately motorists could be driving into a garage over the same sort of sensor, which would instantly tell both the driver and the garage staff which parts needed replacing and which might be good for several thousand miles more."

He added: "But there are potentially great benefits beyond this as well.

When the car is sent to be scrapped, for example, radio-frequency identification tagging could be used to identify which parts still have a useful life left in them.

"The system will tell the car producer whether separate parts can be reused, recycled, or need to be disposed of in landfill. It will also highlight which parts need improving for a longer life," he said.