The Future of Cars #2

A network of talking vehicles. 

Now days, electronics talking to each other isn't an uncommon occurrence. The bluetooth speaker telling your smartphone it's running out of battery or your car warming itself up with a push of a button on your smartphone app. It's not much longer until your car will be communicating with all the other cars on the highway on your way to work and home. 

This means that cars will be able to share traffic conditions as well as the weather and road blocks. The speed and direction of your car will also be shared with other vehicles on the road, warning others about potential hazards. This is called vehicle-to-vehicle communication, also known as, V2V. 

Prototypes have already been tested on about 3,000 cars and trucks. These devices send a short range safety signal to other vehicles to find potential accidents. The cars will send a "beep" to other cars when they detect danger, such as when another car enters a intersection, a pedestrian walks by, or another driver is driving way to fast. 

The research team behind this believes that this could get rid of almost 80% of all car wrecks on the road today. It's only a matter of time before this V2V technology is equipped on all vehicles.

The Future of Cars #1

Cars that collect and remember data about you. This might sound scary to some of you but in reality, this is something that could really help throughout the day to day activities. All of these new cars carry on-board computers that handle everything that the car does, from the stereo to the brakes. Because of this, computers can alos analyze the trends and inefficiencies of those driving behind the wheel. It wont be much longer before the car knows exactly where you want to go as soon as you step inside. 

Mercedes-Benz is the leader in this program and is developing a system that learns about the driver over time. It will learn your weekly schedule, food preferences, and perhaps even what mood you're in. Not only that, but it'll link up to the GPS and receive satellite data to help find the fastest route to where you go every minute. 

Keep this in mind next time you go car hunting a couple years in the future. The car will be getting to know you, not the other way around. 

Autopilot Features & Capability Tesla Motors Model S D

With all the hype of Tesla Motors latest model "the D", is the autopilot feature really capable of handling itself the way it's promoted? I believe the answer is yes... and no. 

At the moment, it is one of the most advanced cars available with some of the greatest safety features ever built in. The autopilot used a system of new radars, GPS, and camera sensors to run on the road. These features are unmistakably impressive, but the reality of it is that it's more of a turbo charged driver assist feature as of now. Musk has reveled future plans though for the vehicle that will improve it's autopilot functions as time goes on. 

Although, when the vehicle is described by Musk as, "this car is nuts. It's like taking off from a carrier deck. It's just bananas. It's like having your own personal roller coaster", I would want to feel the power transferring into my hands on the steering wheel, non-stop. 

Augmented Reality Windshields

Mercedes is creating a virtual reality for the daily driver. An augmented reality dashboard demonstrated at CES in 2012, so the chances of this being made a "reality" in the near future is inescapable. Sometimes, a video can explain more than words ever can.

Whether this will create more or less distractions is arguable. Some say that this is an amazing safety feature because the driver never has to take their eyes truly off the road. On the other side, with so many notifications, updates, or phone calls flying in front of the drivers eyes, does this truly help the driver? Especially when you consider that the driver could leave the phone in their purse/pocket.

The game changer may be self-driving vehicles. Google has already made several prototypes of vehicles that drive by themselves with the help of radar detection, satellite, lasers, GPS, and multiple cameras. With the latest self-driving cars built with augmented reality windshields, the safety aspect might be considered "perfected".