We have seen a lot of changes in the past decade, from paradigm shifts to interconnectivity and better technology. The latter have made our cars fuel efficient and they now have safety features that we could never have imagined a few decades back.
Luxury brands the likes of Maybach and BMW have been rolling out their electric cars, too while other manufacturers are making their cars better than before. The future seems bright.
Flying Cars? Not Yet
All these advancements have made us curious as to what the next decade holds for automobiles in general. Will we be driving smart cars that also work as our assistant during our commute? Will we have vehicles that no longer need steering wheels but equipped with a small joystick that we’d rarely use? These are very likely.
While we are not expecting flying cars just yet, we can expect that cars of the future will look sleeker and will be more energy efficient than the ones we see on our streets today.
They are also likely going to be made from lighter materials making our vehicles more efficient and responsive. In fact, it is already happening now because the Ford F-150 now comes with an aluminum body, making it lighter by 700 lbs. Aluminum is just the beginning and soon, carbon fiber, a material often reserved for luxury vehicles, will be used in more mainstream brands.
Biometric technology has also made a splash the past few years and these scanners will likely be seen in future cars. Auto manufacturers are already looking into it but it will not only serve as a security measure but a feature that can save lives. Ford, for example, is working on a biometric sensor that can monitor a driver’s breathing and heart rate while on the road.
Collision Prevention and Autonomy
Some vehicles now have collision prevention features that can mitigate or stop frontal impact. The not-so-distant future promises better prevention measures and will likely become standard. According to experts, we’d be seeing autonomous cars by 2020 or in the years that will follow. By 2050, vehicles will be cleaner, leaner, and much safer. They’d be able to cruise on our roads without much intervention from the person behind the wheel.
General Motors already has Super Cruise that enables a vehicle to keep going on its own on long highway stretches. There’s also the European Satre project called the Road Train where one vehicle driven by a professional driver leads other vehicles that are virtually connected to their destination. Then there’s BMW’s Traffic Jam Assistant.
The question is, will you still be able to drive? It will likely be a rare occurrence for car owners to drive their cars in 2050. Admittedly, this takes out the fun in owning a car but whatever happens to car technology in the future, we are quite sure that there will be a lot of things that we will love.