If today’s any indication, the automobile industry is headed nowhere but up. Manufacturers and other automobile brands have consistently stunned fans and consumers not just with new and updated car models, but also surprisingly advanced tech that came along with these modern releases. If you’re looking for a new car to buy, you might as well get yourself something that’s worth your money. And if you want the best in the auto industry today, you might want to focus less on the brand and more on the features of your new car.
If you want to tickle the inner techie in you, you might want your new car to have the latest in awesome tech today. Here are some car tech that’s probably going to arrive as early as 2020:
- Full-blown vehicular automation. What’s a list of car tech updates without autonomous cars? We’ve always dreamt of cars driving us around town, without ever having to hold the wheel. And thanks to people from companies like Tesla and Uber, we’re one step closer to having this dream become a reality. With tech advancements in AI neural networks, cars will be able to quickly identify road signs and posts, traffic lights, random objects, and even pedestrians and other vehicles and make swift action. This leaves you with plenty of room to rest in your car, or even whip out a laptop and play games such as Madalin Stunt Cars 2 as your car drives you to your destination.
- Energy storage panels for hybrids. An early ExxonMobil report states that 50-percent of all cars released in 2040 will likely be hybrids – meaning they depend on both electricity and fuel to function. Cars of the future, especially starting 2020, might start to have some components completely dependent on solar power, with solar panels being installed in vacant parts of the car such as the roof. This can potentially save costs, and put less strain on drivers having to find recharging stations for their vehicles.
- Adaptive cruise control lets cars take over. Shying away from automation entirely, adaptive cruise control takes advantage of the existing cruise control system and lets AI in the car decide what “path” to take based on many factors on the road. When doing it manually, cruise control can be extremely beneficial but also hassling if you don’t know how to use it. With the benefit of the computing power of AI, adaptive cruise control helps cars make informative decisions on whether to speed up or slow down, take a certain turn or not, and even overtake a car or not, just by assessing data from cameras and other sensory devices in the vehicle.
- Proactive airbags might stop crashes altogether. Today’s cars usually have unique sets of airbags to deploy whenever accidents happen. Most cars don’t necessarily just have airbags at the front. Others have airbags in the sides, and even the rear of cars. Interestingly, folks from companies like Mercedez might launch something unique for car safety: undercar airbags. Basically, whereas airbags today usually help protect passengers when accidents happen, these undercar airbags try to stop accidents altogether. When the car senses it might hit something, the airbags are deployed from under the car. Theoretically, the friction from the release should be enough to halt the car and avoid the accident altogether.
- Vehicle-to-vehicle communication can reduce the risk of accident. One of the hardest things to do while driving a car is to let everyone else know what you want to do. People tend to overtake or make sudden turns when they assume other drivers know what they want to do. And sometimes, signal lights just won’t cut it. Thankfully, tech like vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication has been in the works for a few years, and it might finally take shape. While this won’t necessarily involve directly talking to other drivers (yet), V2V essentially puts tech that allows vehicles to “take over” cars and “respond” to the movement of other cars near them. This is similar to automation, where cars themselves make the call as to how they want to drive. However, V2V will mostly do this through warnings and other reminders for drivers to respond properly.
- Advanced holographic dashboards. Sometimes, it can get a bit uncomfortable having to turn your head down just to see important information about your car. After all, a split second might be all it takes for us to avoid or become a part of an accident. Advanced holographic displays on dashboards can make it extremely efficient for you to see everything there is to know about your car in as seamless a way as possible. This is extremely helpful, as this lets you focus on the road and avoid any more distractions. These displays will likely be able to show things aside from your current fuel level and speed – such as music, maps, and even other tools.
- Get air conditioning where you sit. When we drive our cars, our seats serve as our “thrones.” Whenever we feel comfortable where we sit, the more comfortable our ride becomes. This is important during stressful days, long rides home, and even for just sheer comfort in general. We’ve already seen the advent of warm car seats, but now we may finally see air-conditioned or cold car seats. The trick here lies in fans under the seat that generate air that’s circulated through a mesh fabric system inside the seat.
Tech In Cars Today: All About Efficiency, Convenience
If there’s anything the above tell us, it’s that tech in cars today comprise not only tools to increase our automobile’s efficiency. Rather, there’s a ton of tools today that help a great deal with passenger comfort, as well as unique tech that ensure everyone stays safe and enjoys the entire ride. Granted, these extra features and add-ons might cost you a bit more, especially with regards to overall vehicle costs.
However, if you’re one to make sure your experience with your car remains an enjoyable one, you might want to consider adding these to your vehicle. Remember, these tech may or may not be present in cars, depending on your manufacturer.
So be sure to ask them what extra features come with your vehicle, and make sure you’re paying for exactly the features you want to maximize your enjoyment with your car.
