Johnson Controls

Implementing the short-range wireless technology Bluetooth in cars seems like a no-brainer.

 It distinguishes great companies from the mediocre.

Bill Fluharty, vice president of Industrial Design at Johnson Controls, not surprisingly thinks that the focus on automotive interiors is well overdue. Some of the drivers for this change of perspective may be surprising.

A few thousand vehicles were displayed at the 2000 Mondial de l’Automobile (or Paris Auto Show as it’s known in a more popular parlance), but only a few stood out: those that did predicted a very fashionable—albeit gridlocked—future.

Here's a look at a trend in interiors: providing complete, tested, in-sequence cockpits rather than just instrument panels. And Johnson Controls is building them just-in-time for the Jeep Liberty.

Tom Gould talks about lifecycle analysis, engineers are important for designers, and why materials need to be authentic in interiors.

By rethinking designs and working toward more efficient solutions, seats will be major contributors to vehicle downsizing and lightweighting.

JCI's mannequin allows determination of seating positions for seat and interior developments.

Johnson Controls' (JCI's) Port Street facility (Plymouth, MI) assembles seats for, among other vehicles, the Lincoln LS.

At Johnson Controls’ annual Team Rally, acting skills are nearly as important as the ability to explain Six Sigma.

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Be true to your attributes. Embrace conflict. Be authentic. No, these are not chapter headings for the latest self-help book, but some of the guidelines Johnson Controls, Inc. is using to frame the future of automotive interiors.

The mid-size 2005 Pathfinder, Nissan's largest design and development program to date, involved three technical centers, and took 36 months and countless trans-Pacific trips to complete. Though it borrows major components from the full-size Titan pickup and Armada SUV, it's not just a downsized clone.

Here’s a look at how Johnson Controls creates leading interiors as well as cool ideas for clever products.

Designing, Engineering & Making The Drop-Top

What do you get paid for?” John Waraniak, director of E-Business Speed, Johnson Controls, asks rhetorically.

The people at Johnson Controls Automotive Systems Group have pushed the limits of the vehicle interior envelope by creating a lab that allows optimization by design. Here's a look inside.

At this year’s SAE 2000 Congress & Exposition there was plenty of buzz and noise inside Cobo Center (including a Visteon-draped People Mover that rolled above the record-setting crowd). Here’s some of the audio, filtered.