Cars of the future

What will the car of the future look like? We already have some idea judging by some of the existing cars such as the BMW i8, but the idea is to look at how a car will look like say, 40 years from now. Yes, some of us will still be around to see them in action.

Carmakers have turned to the famous Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA to present their latest technologies of the future instead of the traditional dedicated car shows such as the Geneva Motor Show. Every new technology is a sort of a gamble and in that sense, Vegas is the ultimate place to reveal them.

One of the most daring concepts of the future we have seen so far comes from German automaker Daimler (parent company of Mercedes Benz) which showed its vision of the driverless car, a prototype vehicle that allows four passengers to face each other as the vehicle finds its way.

“In the future, the car brings access to the single most important luxury goods of the 21st century: private space and quality time,” said Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche, as he unveiled the self-driving Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan F 015 at a keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Vehicles, he said, “will be exclusive cocoons on wheels that enable people to do exactly what they want.”

Concept

The futuristic designed car with a sweeping curved form factor still has a steering wheel, but the driver's seat and front passenger seat can pivot to allow the vehicle to become a “private retreat,” according to Daimler. That may never really happen due to front-collision safety laws, but it is an interesting concept. The outside of the car is made from a mixture of carbon, aluminium and high-strength steel, with a single pane of glass stretching from the car’s windshield to its sunroof.

This is a connected car in every sense of the word. It has “Extended Sense,” which knows its location down to the millimeter and can identify its owner from a smartphone. It has a heads-up display that can show street numbers, which restaurants have tables available, how many tickets are left for that night's show at a theatre you're driving past. It also has six high-resolution touch screens that can be controlled by passenger’s gestures and eye movements.

A specially developed app offers further control options even when away from the vehicle, using a mobile device. The F 015 can therefore be sent off to search for its own parking space, or perhaps to a specific location to collect the user or other occupants. But the best bit is that the Mercedes F 015 can go 1100km on a single charge. It does this thanks to an F-Cell plug-in hybrid system that Mercedes first debuted in 2011.

Future

All these may or may not appear in cars of the future, but much of the F 015 will show up in some version, some day, in some car. In fact, some technologies such as self-parking already exist. BMW has already demonstrated a car that can be ‘remote-parked’ using a smartphone or smartwatch app which recognises voice commands. This was also on show at Vegas.

Audi also showed off its driverless cars, one of which had already completed a nearly 1,000 Km drive from California to Nevada. It exhibited a Q7 which can be controlled using a smartphone or watch. It will also respond to touch and gesture control, plus recognise natural-language voice input for navigation. An Audi dashboard was previewed which had no physical controls at all - it was entirely powered by a flexible Samsung OLED touchscreen.

Toyota too has begun sales of the Mirai, a hydrogen-powered car in limited numbers. Mirai literally means the “future” in Japanese and is a pointer to a prominent fuel of the future.

It will only be a matter of time before hydrogen filling stations come on line, in addition to more electric charging points for all-electric cars. These cars will be full of other technologies, apart from the novel drive-trains. Solar power could also play a limited role in cars of the future - some cars already have solar roofs as an optional accessory.

Obstacles

However, some technologies such as driverless cars will face regulatory obstacles. After all, if you are in a driverless car and an accident happens resulting in fatalities or injuries, who should be held responsible? Insurance companies and health providers will want concrete answers to these dilemmas before allowing completely autonomous cars on the roads.

They should literally be able to talk to other cars and interact with road infrastructure such as road signs, LED billboards and traffic signals.

It will otherwise be impractical to have driverless cars on our roads.

Even if a car can drive itself, it is highly likely that lawmakers will call for a competent driver who can take over in critical moments ‘at the wheel’. Granted, electronics and machines do have quicker reaction times than humans do, but what about the important factor of judgement at a critical moment? If a young person and elderly person cross the road suddenly in front of your car and at the speed you are travelling you can save only one of them, who do you save? Can a machine or computer make that kind of judgement? You will go to jail anyway for that offence, but can you escape the law by saying that the car was in total control? These are ethical and moral questions but we have to take these factors into account.

Devices

There is no doubt that technology will march on relentlessly. Most of the devices that we use today, did not exist even five years ago. That denotes the very rapid state of progress in terms of technology. But when it comes to cars, safety is of paramount importance. In this instance at least, technology will have to take a backseat to safety concerns for the greatest good of the greatest number.