Car Tech Of The Future

So what new technology can we expect to see in all types of vehicles over the next few years?

The world’s longest successful autonomous drive was recently completed on a UK motorway. Dubbed ‘The Grand Drive’ the Nissan leaf followed a 230-mile course from Cranfield in Bedfordshire on a route that featured many complex roundabouts, high-speed country lanes with no road markings, kerbs or white lines to follow.

It featured technology such as GPS, radar, LIDAR (Light detection and ranging) and camera technologies that build up a perception of the world around it. Using this perceived world, the system can make decisions about how to navigate roads and obstacles it encounters on its journey.

With successful driverless routes being completed every day, and autonomous vehicles coming to the public attention more and more, it seems that driverless technology might not be as far away as we think it is.

Many vehicles already have built-in systems that notify us when we need our brakes replacing or engine servicing, however, this is set to become a more common feature for major vehicle manufacturers. Vehicles of tomorrow will employ algorithms that recognise patterns in vehicle performance to let us know when it is time to service or repair parts on our vehicle. Reminders could be sent to our phones, smartwatches and tablets in advance.

Radar and Lidar as previously mentioned, are sensors located on a vehicle which help it build up an image of its surroundings. If cars are able to share this information across a large network, it can help cars react to a situation such as a collision instantaneously, helping to prevent further injury to cars further down that are approaching the accident.

Biometry will help prevent theft, as only faces registered to a vehicle will be able to open doors and start the car. As a large majority of crashes are due to the driver not paying attention or being distracted (such as on a mobile phone) facial recognition can monitor things like blinking, facial expressions and head movements, helping the vehicle to provide subsequently alerts if a driver begins to lose focus or becomes distracted.