I'm guessing we're not too close to having the technology to be travelling around in Jetson-mobiles in the near future, but according to MSN Autos, our cars are going to come a very long way in the upcoming years. By 2020, MSN Autos predicts that our cars will have the following features:
1. Warnings Galore, including collision-mitigation systems that warn you when you are getting too close to other objects/cars. I could have used that ten years ago when I backed my dad's car into a pole. Ooops.
2. Eyes All Around, meaning rear view cameras in every car. I can see how this could be helpful, but I don't think I could rely on a camera instead of my own two eyes when backing up.
3. Pedestrian Detection and Night Vision. A pedestrian detection system apparently brings your car to a full stop if it detects a pedestrian in your path. I just hope that cars don't think they're smarter than us. I don't want to be stopping every time there's a pedestrian walking along the sidewalk or waiting on the corner to cross the street.
4. Easy Cruising, including adaptive cruise control that prevents you from getting too close to the vehicle in front of you. Good bye, tailgating!
5. Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication. Isn't this what cell phones are for? Apparently, not. This type of communication allows vehicles to talk to each other to avoid collisions.
6. A better way to connect. Easier blue tooth options could be very helpful. I always opt for speaker phone while in the car instead of trying to figure out how to use my blue tooth earpiece while on the road.
7. App central. Really? Talk about distracted driving. People have enough distractions. Adding the availability of apps, including Facebook and Twitter, to a car's dash sounds disastrously dangerous to me.
8. Fuel-sipper tech. Sounds great and all, except the part about adding $10,000 to the price of a new car. Yikes!
9. Advanced engines. No surprise there.
10. Exotic materials, to reduce weight and meet higher mileage standards.
All in all, the new, advanced features sound exciting and helpful, but I think I'd like to pass on a few of them.
Original MSN Autos article: 10 Things Your Car Will Have By 2020
#5 makes me laugh. I'd really like to test drive one of the cars that parks itself...but by the sounds of this review there are a few bugs to work out of the system. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2006/09/ls_460_parking.html
ReplyDeleteThere's no saying what the future will bring. So far, we only have hybrid EVs in mass production, which is still a step down from the all-electric types. A biometric-run vehicle would be in my future car list, though.
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