The most real automotive future is the development of programmed aging technologies. This is done by pragmatic marketers in collusion with engineers. Well, idealists dream of an electronic paradise.
The most real automotive future is the development of programmed aging technologies. This is done by pragmatic marketers in collusion with engineers. Well, idealists dream of an electronic paradise.
The idea of programmed aging is not exactly fresh. For 25 years, we have been moving at the speed of Leman prototypes to disposable cars of the “drive – throw away – buy a new” system. Automotive brands spend huge budgets on making systems and units that are not really needed, but are expensive to repair and break down exactly the day after the end of the warranty period.
Why are they trying to put a bag of functions into a car with a penny cost and a short lifespan.
At this point, a look into the future could be completed. Everything pales in comparison to the ingenious idea to sell us expensive, broken cars more often. However, unnecessary functions from pragmatists are a topic for a separate review. Now let’s see what the idealists offer us.
Soon the machine will be ready to make a medical diagnosis itself. For example, it will count your pulse, measure the temperature, take a cardiogram. And … will consider that you should not drive, cutting off the fuel supply from the gas tank and calling an ambulance. Well, or it will not allow current from the battery to flow into the electric motor.
The theme is almost working. The only difference is that while the car can make you blow into the built-in breathalyzer. And then he won’t let you move.
And already a classic of the genre – electronics that monitor the driver’s pupils and a chaotic lane change. Artificial intelligence can understand that the driver falls asleep at the wheel. First, the car will draw a cup of coffee on the monitor and gently tug on the steering wheel in the hope of waking you up. And then it will sound the alarm with a sharp sound signal.
Another aspect of health care is comprehensive (active and passive) safety. For several years now, Volvo has been offering a pedestrian airbag under the hood. If the car hits a pedestrian, the airbag deploys, preventing the person from flying headfirst into the A-pillar or windshield.
And the Japanese, for example, are experimenting with transmitting an alarm signal directly into the headphones of gaping hipsters who do not part with music in their ears on the street.
Already, cars are equipped with sensors and radars operating in different ranges, as well as infrared cameras. The latter are able to see a person or an elk crossing the road almost in complete darkness.
Engineers are experimenting with headlights, making incredible designs with LEDs, prism lasers and additional corner-peeping elements. Headlights can not only shine in a variety of directions and with different intensity depending on weather and road conditions. Now they are ready to illuminate, say, a person in different ways – in a few milliseconds he is already identified by heart rate and body temperature! – and an ordinary roadside bush.
In addition to the picture in the windshield, we are offered to read the maximum information from all kinds of displays. Projection on glass or on a special transparent screen in front of the driver’s eyes is no surprise. Now there is a minimum of functions – speed, navigation tips in the form of simple arrows, a reminder of road signs. But companies are ready to bring augmented reality before our eyes soon. It is clear that it will be possible to display an Internet browser window or a picture from a video player on the same display.
And, of course, Google Glasses! For example, auto mechanics will be offered to study the engine in a three-dimensional picture with step-by-step instructions for repair.
With the new BMW seven, you can already communicate with gestures. For example, you twist your finger in the air clockwise – you increase the volume of the audio system, against – you decrease it. Microsoft and Google have already registered variants of their patents for this technology.
Or maybe gestures will not be needed soon – it will be enough to glance at some option in the menu to “fall through” to the next level and rotate the pupils already there.
Hybrids will soon take over the planet. But we have not yet seen a breakthrough in battery technology – these elements are still bulky, heavy and expensive.
Engineers are experimenting on… body panels that can act as batteries, accumulating electricity. They promise that the panels will be light and flexible.
But energy can not be carried with you at all. Electric cars will turn into something like a tram and will receive electricity from the roadway.
In general, the topic of roads is completely separate and no less interesting than the development of transport. They are proposed to be built from hollow plastic blocks, inside which all communications will pass. Outside, solar panels can be mounted in such a canvas. And road markings with a special coating will also be charged during the day from the sun’s rays, and glow at night.