The major Japanese automakers and several giant electronics firms are to collaborate in the development of an intelligent Tron car, in which all the electronics will be under control of software running under Ken Sakamura’s Tron operating system. The companies involved in the project are Toyota Motor Co, Nissan Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi Ltd, Toshiba Corp and Aisin Precision Instruments Inc. An initial research meeting was held on July 28 and a Tron Intelligent Car Network Technology Committee was formed with Professor Sakamura will be appointed as chairman. Plans are to invite participation from US manufacturers such as Ford Motor Co and Europeans such as Siemens AG. The aim of the project is to develop a car for the 21st century which will use Tron software for driving and operational systems that will use a keyboard instead of a steering wheel, and for navigation systems, as well as systems for external communication with the intelligent car to promote safe driving and prevent accidents. This is the first time electronics and car manufacturers have been brought together in this way, but the Intelligent Car project follows the Intelligent House and Intelligent City projects, also designed to demonstrate how to apply Tron technology to create intelligent objects. The Tron Association lobby for the operating system is sponsoring several research projects, including development of a 32-bit Tron chip; development of the I-Tron industrial control variant of the operating system; the B-Tron business personal computer version of Tron; and the C-Tron commercial mainframe version. The Tron Association currently has 120 members, including some 20 to 30 from the US and Europe. Professor Sakamura, not surprisingly objects to the characterisation of Tron as the Rising Sun Operating System, and the proposal that so upset the US Trade Representative to mandate B-Tron as the standard operating system for schools micros has run into technical trouble: developed by Matsushita, the version being tested at the Computer Education Centre is reportedly full of bugs – even Matsushita is saying that its work is still only in the research stage.
