Heading into the modern age, car manufacturers need to keep up with the technological leaps that are happening in every other industry. More importantly they need to supply all of the gadgets and upgrades customers want so when the time comes to purchase a new car, the customer knows what he or she wants and knows where to get it. This is not just limited to the design of the car, customers see technology in films and think about how that should be invented and incorporated into the next design. The car of the future is something that scientists are working on right now, that incorporate all of the up and coming technology.
Car Communication and self-drive imagine a drive that would last you a couple of hours, let’s say for example you live in London and you need to get to Glasgow, you could take a train or flight but you might need your car for a family holiday. So that drive would take you anywhere from six to seven hours in which you would be concentrating on the road and wouldn’t be able to do anything else. This is where self-driving cars would come in, essentially it would be like having a sat-nav that would control the car while simultaneously communicating with all the cars in the area to ensure safety and security. Google are currently working on this and have designed and tested a prototype, however due to the laws on the road in the UK the cars cannot be tested on public roads at this time. Self-driven cars could revolutionize the roads we see on a day to day basis and seriously reduce the accidents.
Augmented Reality Dashboards
Augmented reality is something that everyone should be excited about. Rather than have lights and plastic displays, that can be worn down or hard to see, augmented reality shows you all the information you need on the windscreen of your car without obscuring your vision. Not only would it show you information like your speed but it would also provide information about vehicles in front of you in bad weather. If there is a heavy amount of fog on the road it can be dangerous and terrifying for someone to drive in, but with augmented reality the cars on the road would be lit up so the driver is safe. This is not just for the drivers benefit, the passengers could use AR to pass the time with activities programmed into the AR system.
Nanotubes
Nanotubes are an up and coming material that could revolutionize the way we build things. It is built from allotropes of carbon in a cylindrical structure and is stronger than some of the materials we use. The strength coupled with it being much lighter than the metals we use means it would use much less fuel and be able to take punishment. The panels that are used to construct the vehicle could also be used to store energy meaning that rather than use a large battery, the panels would store large amounts of electricity and reduce the weight significantly.
Electrical Vehicles in today’s age where global warming is slowly taking hold and everyone is doing their part to protect the earth, shouldn’t we stop using fossil fuels to power vehicles we use? The CO2 alone is enough to consider developing a new system. Well as many people will have seen that development is in progress around the world. Electrical cars are slowly moving into the mainstream but they do however come at a cost. The current battery used in an electrical car is far too heavy and because of that the car has to be designed accordingly, not to mention that there are very few places you can get power for your electric car. If this idea was coupled with other developments such as nanotubes, electrical cars would rapidly take the market by storm.
Emergency airbags in a traditional sense airbags protect the driver and passenger from sustaining serious injury during a crash. However if you could use an airbag to stop the crash all together, the safety of the vehicle would increase. Another technology being developed is airbags under the car that would stop the car before a crash. Sensors built into the vehicle detect when a crash is inevitable. The coating on the bags would produce friction with the road and slow the car down. To conclude, everyone should be excited for these new developments that we could see entering the mass market in the next couple of years. The effects of these technologies would significantly reduce the danger driver’s face on the roads. They could also reduce fatalities from accidents marginally and hopefully create a much cleaner environment.
One thing to note is the effects these technologies will have on drivers who are about to take their DSA theory test. The impact on safety would mean it would be simpler to learn, safer for the tutor and significantly less expensive to insure as a car that can’t crash won’t cost anything.