Data Transmission

How does information travel inside cars and computers?

When we think about modern vehicles and computers, we often imagine the hardware like the engine found under the hood in the case of cars or the RAM in computers, but behind the scenes, it’s the communication between parts that makes everything work. Cars and Computers share more similarities than may be obvious on the surface. In both cars and computers, this happens through highly advanced networks designed to send data fast, reliably, and often all at once. In a vehicle, dozens of components need to talk to each other every second—from the engine sensors to the airbag system to your infotainment display. Cars use systems like CAN, FlexRay, and even Automotive Ethernet to handle this. Meanwhile, computers use data buses like PCIe and memory channels to move information between the CPU, RAM, and storage.

What’s really interesting is how both systems have developed similar strategies to deal with problems like interference or data loss. Cars send extra copies of important messages, check for errors, and re-send data if something goes wrong. Computers do the same thing using techniques like error-correcting codes and redundant pathways. As we push for faster speeds and more complex tasks—like self-driving features in cars or ultra-fast gaming in computers—both worlds are shifting toward more advanced technologies. Cars are starting to adopt Ethernet just like computers did years ago, allowing for higher bandwidth and faster communication between components. It’s just another way we can see how mechanical systems and digital systems aren’t so different after all. In future years, it is possible that the difference between cars and computers will be so small that they are practically the same thing.