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OCTOBER 8, 2014 |
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What will the car of the future look like?
EDITORS NOTE: As our reader’s prepare their vehicles for the tough winter driving season, we thought it would be interesting to see what the experts think they will be driving in the future. This article is from the BBC.
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Car companies have recently been telling us what the car of 2020 will be like: autonomous is one word used, electric is another, and it will be connected to the internet too. Sound exciting? It is, but it’s doubtful you’ll find all of this on the forecourt in the next seven years (cars typically get completely redesigned every five to seven years). However, the directions being proposed are a very good starting point to look even further and ask the question: what might the car of 2050 look like? For a start, will there even be cars in 2050? Will an invention that will be 150 years old by then be replaced by something better? Will environmental concerns kill it? Will people become tired of getting behind the wheel, as recent studies suggest? The answer seems to be “maybe”, but the reality is that the automobile is a very liberating
on almost an
and flexible means of transportation. It fulfills people’s desire to move around freely and independently. And – done right - the automobile can be a sustainable and safe means of transportation. But we must also acknowledge this form of mobility comes at a premium, as polar ice melts, megacities become suffocated by smog and congestion, resources dwindle, and around 1.2 million people get killed in traffic
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accidents globally every year. We know why: we want to be mobile, and our mobility has some negative implications. So what can – actually, must – we do in order to make the automobile of the year 2050 cleaner, safer, leaner and still enjoyable to use? This is a crucial question: mass-motorisation in emerging countries means there will be more than three billion vehicles on the planet in 2050, compared with around one billion today.
Hands-free driving
The automobile in 2050 will be self-driving. Companies are working on concepts allowing cars to cruise along on the highway without driver intervention, many of which are likely to be seen on our roads. There is the Super Cruise from General Motors, which controls the vehicle on long highway stretches when not much is happening. Then there is the Traffic Jam Assistant from BMW; cars move along in a congested traffic area just like a school of fish. Or there’s Road Train from the European Satre project which includes Volvo, where one vehicle with a professional driver leads a platoon of other vehicles, connected virtually and following like pearls on a string along the highway – turning the commute into possibly more productive time as the drivers can now work or rest. And when the car makes it to its destination, it can park itself in a high-tech parking Wolf says. . We Offer all these Services
structure, just as Audi has demonstrated. Will the driver need to do anything at all? Will there still be a steering wheel? Cars will probably require that drivers monitor what the vehicle does and switch from one mode to another – such as highway driving to city driving. There will probably still be a steering wheel, but some models could have a little joystick that the driver only uses rarely. Driving is likely to get much safer (human error still accounts for the majority of all accidents) and also much more efficient, as centralised traffic control will lead to a smoother flow and less congestion. But how much of an effect this new technology has will depend on how widely it is rolled out. The changes might not
bility pods similar to the GM EN-V concept or autonomous vehicles like the Induct Navia. These will be urban, flexible solutions to move people around. In many metro areas, a well-organised public transportation system will be the most effective way to move large numbers of people. However, some commuters might not want to take it, either because of network problems, schedules or safety concerns. Publicly organised on-demand transportation systems that can accommodate up to six people will bring travellers automatically to their destination in downtown areas, and then move on to serve others. Customers will simply enter their destination and payment informa-
tion – think of it as a totally automated taxi system.
Digital frontier
Personal mobility will become more of a service, one that companies such as Google have recognised. The search and computing giant has become strongly involved in creating automated vehicles. And some think the car needs to serve us in other ways, whether we drive it or it drives itself. Many car companies are already working with Apple to integrate Siri into automobiles, creating virtual personal assistants in the car to help us with routes, traffic information, and the scheduling of our day. Our vehicles will be fully integrated into the digital lifestyle of 2050 – whatever that turns out to be.
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