The automotive industry is transforming at a lightning fast speed, where the world has seen the limits so far, when the steering system has been removed to free up the driver, yes the driverless cars. Moving further, you might see the seats vanishing or even the wheels in the future.
Anyway, generally, the ultimate purpose of a vehicle would remain the same, to take the passengers from point A to point B as convenient, fast and comfortable. The rapid advancement in technology and most modern features are replacing the old fashioned analog infotainment systems.
More advanced entertainment and driver support features are coming in, e.g., a luxury vehicle of 2019 is using more than 130 sensors to support its driver.
Where it handles the top speed limits,
keep the vehicle in lane,
informs the driver about the blind spots on the road, calls the emergency services if the driver had some health issues,
offers autonomous parking systems,
massages the driver’s and passenger’s back,
offers dual way climate control systems,
informs about the traffic situation ahead where the driver cannot see while driving,
to the least modern features, it also helps the driver to reach its destination through the satellite navigation system.
In that vein, automakers and even the consumers are still not feeling satisfied with this all advancement and still are making advancement in the premium cars. The new era of technological advancement is about to begin here where the targets would be on smart mobility and vehicle to vehicle communication, and Engine Supply and Fitted services would definitely be transformed to accordance this latest technology. Smart mobility is such a vast subject, and we are expecting to see a lot at this platform.
For a layman concept, Just like the smartphones, the smart vehicles would have the ability to be controlled by smartphones and should also take a similar route and evolve the smart cars, few automakers have already been working on this subject and integrated the smartphones into the vehicles, where Tesla, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Land Rover are ahead of the game in the UK. Here to see how the next era of technological advancement would affect the automotive industry and what we would be using in the future.
A new era of technology in premium vehicles
1. Enhanced Gesture Control
The existing technology of knob and voice controls was introduced in the vehicles at the beginning of this decade when Audi has announced the face recognition system in their vehicles bit after some time they transformed it into voice recognition system to control the functions of the vehicle. The feature was called MMI touch system, it was introduced an enhancement for the multimedia interface controls to spare the driver from converting his attention towards multimedia controls while on the go and cause an accident on the road.
MMI touch system video
The system was supporting a number of languages including English. Recently Mercedes has introduced a similar kind of technologies with enhanced gesture control. There is a lot to come in this field soon.
2. Augmented Reality Head-Up Display
Head-up displays are the next big thing in the automotive world, a few automotive manufacturers have worked on this technology and introduced it in their vehicles, e.g. Land Rover is using the smart windshield and bonnet systems where a driver can see the ground and road under the vehicle.
These displays would show all the information on the vehicle windshield, where speed, navigation, and name of the incoming call and other information would show. There are few apps available on the play store to use your smartphone as head-up display, but this feature would be soon available in the vehicle as a standard feature.
3. Apps & Firmware Updates
In the future the vehicles would use the most modern and equally powerful apps which are being used on your smartphone and for starter, there might be some specialized apps for certain regions, but in future, this feature would be a standard on all vehicles. These specialized apps would provide localized information to the drivers about the malls, places of interest and even the restaurants near him.
Toyota is working on this feature and has already introduced a vehicle called concept Vii which can do all the above and even more. In the future, this feature would be introduced in a lot of vehicles but it will take some time. There would be firm updates then, which will improve the functionality of these apps.
These updates would improve the functionality of the features like Wi-Fi connectivity and charging capacity etc. Tesla Model S as discussed earlier is already using these features to get information from tire pressure to battery consumption, everything on its central infotainment display.
4. Sheet Thin Batteries and solar charging
The batteries are the next big thing in the future, and they would be used in all-electric vehicles. As the battery packs are heavy and bulky; thus the automotive industry is looking to use the thin sheet batteries in the future.
These batteries would save space, and weight to keep the vehicle well balanced. These panels would be used even in the roof of the car, and the roofs would be made of solar panels to charge the batteries while on the move.
5. Communication between Vehicles
It doesn’t mean that the driver would call the next car, but it is something different where cars would communicate with each other, it would be more like machine communicating with each other. So that there would be smoother traffic. This technology will increase traffic efficiency, road safety and also driving experience.
6. Smart Fuel Saving Tips
There are a number of the vehicle in the market which are using the systems to calculate the actual fuel economy, but there would be more modern systems which will give the tips to increase the fuel economy.
7. Perfect Integration with Smartphones
Something which is dearly awaiting in the market is smartphone integration with the vehicles, and it is partially integrated as well. You can park your vehicle with the help of your smartphone without sitting in the car. In the future, your smartphone would be more in control to help you drive your vehicle. Honda and Apple are using Siri eyes free in its coming cars.
8. Long Term Evolution (LTE)
Currently, built-in GPS systems are capable of working without GPS or internet access, but in the future, this is going to be more advanced, and LTE would be used to allow a better quality of internet.
9. Self-Healing body Paints
These paints are around for a time now but have not been introduced in the consumer cars for some reason. But this cool technology is now on its way to get into the market. Surface scratches would magically disappear within a few minutes or hours. But again the deep scratches would not be gone 100% and still been visible if you look in depth.
10. Financial GPS
The cars would be able to communicate with any system around, e.g., its toll, cars, human, any financial system, or even the fuel stations, even with your bank. BMW is in this game, they have created a key that works like a credit card system and can call any financial transaction. This system can pay any type of bills, and even the repair bills. This might be the biggest move we might be seeing in the future when your car would pay your bills.
