The Dream of Hi-Tech Devices on Four Wheels

MANILA: In the world of technology, there is no such thing like the saturation as the advancement in technologies is bound to increase over the years. Even the automotive industry is no exception whether it be for entertainment, safety or simply for pure innovation. The pace at which automotive technologies are changing accelerates every year. This had many autogeeks wondering-what these technologies have stored in their surprise box?

Here we have listed few in an effort to find out which fictional  as well as imaginable technologies we'll get to see in get-up-and-go form in recent years or by 2020.

Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication: This sounds somewhat bizarre, but being in automotive industry what we have learnt is nothing is quite bizarre in this industry. Expect the unexpected is the slogan we can swear for in the automotive industry. Prominent carmakers are seriously looking into this interesting technology that will let two cars communicate with each other and with objects surrounding.

Imagine, you at an intersection and a car running at you. You may not see the car but your car gets a signal from the other and warns you of the potential collision or might even hits the brake itself. This V2V technology is currently being tested by some of the major brands to contribute in reducing the accidents on the road.

Windshield Display: Many of us can't live without our mobile phones, we have become addicted to this small gadget and this has become a bitter truth of our life. We can't really stay away from this gadget and this includes the time we are on road. Fiddling with the phone while behind the wheel sometimes turns out fatal, so the renowned brand Samsung is working on the Smart Windshield which works pretty much like our HUD, heads-up display. It will display information such as call or text, GPS mapping or other legit data. With the smart windshield you can use your beloved phone yet be safe. For now, the prototype is seen on bikes only, but we are sure carmakers won’t be behind in implementing this technology.

Intensified Reality dashboards: GPS and other in-car displays are not new to us, but in the near future, expect the cars to identify external objects and display their information on the windshield. This definitely will bring a deja-vu from the Terminator, where in the robots sensed the surrounded objects and automatically display their information. This windshield display has already been implemented by BMW in some of its range-topping vehicles and working on the Augmented Reality dashboard that will overlay the in-car information as well as the information of what the driver is seeing in real life.

Airbags as Active Safety System: We all are well-versed with the most distinct passive safety system in our cars - Airbags. We have them as curtain airbags, side airbags, knee airbags and even seat-belt airbags. Mercedes is a level ahead of all other auto brands as it is now working on its new innovation, airbags, as active safety. The German brand is on its way of moving these airbags from a passive safety measure to the active safety system. These airbags when functional, deploy from underneath the car when sensors determine the potential inevitable crash. Apart from this, with the friction coating airbags, the car will slow down and it will also elevate the car by good eight centimeters, improving bumper-to-bumper contact.

What makes this underneath airbag system potential as a future technology is that it will be using the existing vehicle safety system.

Many innovations or technologies we witness have some safety focus to them or some are truly innovative that can completely change the transportation scenario. Technology we have now, we wouldn't even thought of having 20 years ago and what we will going to have in next 20 years is pretty incredible.  Well, we don’t know which will actually surface , but going by the current trend we have some vision of the new technologies that will most probably surface into the production.