Long gone are the days when cars were just a mean of transport to help you get from a place to another. Nowadays, the automotive industry places huge importance of the driving experience a car can offer. Thanks to technological advancements, cars have steadily evolved into becoming more comfortable, safer, faster, and more entertaining. The future of cars looks extremely promising as we are witnessing everyday innovations that are some truly exciting technologies that can revolutionize human transportation for good.
In today’s technology-driven era, the automotive industry has implemented some of the best tech innovations to design cars that can offer the best driving experience. Here are the best automotive technologies that promise to make today’s cars safer, more entertaining, and less pollutant to our planet:
Safety technologies
Unfortunately, in the last several years, road safety has become an alarming public health issue. Specialists have reported an increasing number of fatal or disabling road accidents which have placed road accidents in the tenth-leading causes of all deaths globally. The automotive industry had to come up with the best technological innovations to improve safety on the road for the passengers of the cars. Many tests have shown that newer cars which are equipped with innovative safety features often perform a thousand times better in crashes than old cars. Here are the main safety features today’s cars are equipped with to keep passengers safe in a road accident:
Adaptive cruise control– This safety feature is available on most newer car models nowadays. It is a technological innovation that automatically controls the vehicle speed by increasing it or reducing it according to the road or traffic conditions. Adaptive cruise control helps the driver to keep a safe distance to the preceding vehicle and tightens the seatbelts in case it senses the risk of a potential collision.
Forward collision warning– Frontal collisions are the worst that could happen on the road producing the most damage not only to the vehicle but also to the passengers of the car. This safety feature aims to help drivers to avoid or minimize the consequences of a frontal collision. the innovative technology reduces the impact speed of a crash or alerts the driver about an imminent crash.
Blindspot detection– The blind spot detection safety feature aims to make parking safer and easier for the drivers. It alerts the driver and shows the presence of any type of object or people in the blind spot of the car. The system displays a warning in the corner of the rear view or uses an audible alert.
Pedestrian auto emergency braking– Most road accidents don’t only involve cars but also pedestrians. The inability to break the car on time, pedestrians crossing the street in wrong places, or the blind spot of the car, are just a few reasons that lead to road accidents in which pedestrians are involved. However, the Pedestrian auto emergency braking is a safety feature that automatically breaks when it senses pedestrians in the forward path of the vehicle.
Entertainment technologies
Long ago, driving a car was perceived only as a mean of transportation. Passengers didn’t consider that cars should be fun to drive. However, this trend has changed in the automotive industry. More and more people want their cars to be just as smart as their smartphones and provide them with entertainment even when they are on the road.
Smartphone integration– Thanks to the internet, drivers can now connect their smartphones to their cars which leads to unlimited entertainment options. From listening to music, making phone calls, or even playing movies on screens for the backseat passengers, cars can now offer a whole new level of entertainment for all passengers.
Vehicle to vehicle communication– V2V technological innovation allows vehicles to speak to each other when they are on the road. This feature aims to decrease traffic and vehicle accidents by allowing better communication between all drivers on the road.
Cars-as-a-service– Sharing a ride with a stranger and socializing was never been so easy. The car-as-a-service feature helps city drivers to engage in a ride-sharing service and share their ride with other people.
Eco-friendly technologies
The automotive industry has a bad reputation when it comes to its impact on our planet. From the manufacturing process to the point where the car actually runs on the street, there is a lot of pollution taking place. If we just take a glance in the past, the automotive industry hasn’t always been the cleanest being one of the main sources of pollutant emissions and energy consumption. Thus, more and more car manufacturers have started to address the environmental issues the automotive industry has triggered and changed the way they produce the cars.
Electric vehicles– Electric vehicles are the most innovative technology designed by the automotive industry to reduce its impact on our planet. Electric vehicles have been designed to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions of cars. Although the full adoption of electric vehicles still seems like a far-away achievement, the experts at Autowise believe that the adoption of low emission vehicles is gaining momentum in the automotive industry. For example, one good example of a feature of low emission cars is the stop-start technology that stops the car when it is at rest to save gas and cut down on emissions.
New engine technologies– Innovative engine technologies such as turbocharged engines and gasoline direct injection aim to reduce CO2 emissions, provide fuel economy, and increase the overall performance of the vehicles.
Recycled materials– The manufacturing process of the vehicles is one of the most pollutant factors in the automotive industry. It leads to the production of unimaginable amounts of waste, huge energy consumption, and huge amounts of CO2 emissions. In order to address the environmental impacts, more and more car manufacturers have started to use sustainable and recyclable materials to produce their cars. Materials such as steel, plastic, old tires, and aluminum are recycled and reworked into new cars.
Technological innovations in the automotive industry aim to completely change the driving experience and provide car passengers with improved safety, better entertainment, and eco-friendly transportation options.
