Modern cars feature an increasing number of intelligent functions tied to vehicle and engine control, passenger safety and comfort. This trend towards ever higher “functional density” and development of “smart vehicles” has to contend with restrictions on available space and cost of the components. Use of “smart materials” for actuation represents an excellent technological opportunity for development of electro-mechanical components for the vehicle. In particular, the typical feature of “Shape Memory”, i.e.  of obtaining mechanical actions if stimulated directly through heat or from electrical or magnetic signals,  enables development of simple, very compact, reliable actuators that can be integrated in the components or structures, thus transforming them from static to dynamic or, in some cases, adaptive, as they can directly react to environmental stimuli.
Some case histories will be presented about development of Shape Memory actuators for industrial applications. This trend will be of interest for other industrial applications as well.