Every part of a self-driving car will change, even the doors

Even if self-driving cars never make it to the streets in large numbers — or if they are deployed only in geofenced areas — the huge amount of money invested in the technology will have benefits that could improve all vehicles. Take, for example, the car’s doors.

A visit to the North American headquarters of Brose (BROH’-sah), just north of Detroit, drove home the point that nearly every part of the car will change as self-driving technology matures.

Brose is a privately owned German company that specializes in mechatronics, a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering. The company, a supplier to almost every major automaker, makes around 200 million electric motors per year that power windows, seats, liftgates, air conditioners, etc. One of Brose’s newest products is a self-closing door system for autonomous vehicles. It’s nearly ready for production.

How hard can it be to engineer a system that automatically closes a car door, and why are such systems even necessary, you might wonder. Self-closing sliding doors are in use on minivans, trains and buses and elsewhere, so not exactly rocket science, right? But automobiles with swing open doors present a very different and larger challenge, I learned.

First, the why. Self-closing doors will be an important part of autonomous vehicles. If a passenger exits the vehicle and leaves before closing the door, the car won’t move. If the door can’t close, the car will be out of service until someone is sent to close the door. Downtime means the car isn’t making money for its owner.

The technical challenge is significant. Real estate is at a premium inside a door. In addition to side-impact door beams, required for safety, the regulator, the mechanism that raises and lowers the window, is […]

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