New car technologies in the pipeline that you thought only existed in sci-fi

If you thought that ‘intelligent’ cars that make their own decisions and act of their own accord were things of the far distant future, only made real by sci-fi films then think again. These technologies could be a lot closer to reality then you ever dreamt they were!

Here are five of the most mind-blowing technologies that you could see in brand new vehicles in the not so distant future.

Cars that ‘talk’ to each other

Many car manufacturers are putting a lot of effort into researching technologies that will enable vehicles to communicate with other vehicles and objects around them in order to avoid accidents. Vehicles would be able to communicate their location, speed and direction to other vehicles in the vicinity so that even if you don’t spot another vehicle your car will be able to take evasive action to prevent a collision. As well as potentially being able to communicate with other vehicles, the technologies in question would also be able to receive information from road signs and traffic signals.

Augmented reality dashboards

Imagine if your car’s dashboard was able to tell you information about everything that you are seeing on the road. Perhaps your car would sense that you were too close to the vehicle in front and flash up a warning, or advise you on which lane you need to move into, all without you ever having to take your eyes off the road in front of you. Sounds too good to be true? Well you may not have to wait too long for this technology as many manufacturers including BMW are already working on making it a reality.

Drift control

Did you know that the biggest cause of motoring accidents is people nodding off at the wheel or having a momentary lapse in concentration? Well there is technology in the pipeline that when installed in a vehicle will warn the driver and correct the vehicle’s path if the vehicle begins to drift out of its lane. This technology would work by using sophisticated camera systems to read road markings and could also monitor the driver’s heartbeat to determine how awake or drowsy they are at any given time.

Solar panelled vehicle body panels

In the future cars may be able to produce some of their own energy using solar panelled body parts. The vehicle’s roof and side panels would be equipped with solar panels to produce energy efficient hybrid cars.

Self-driving cars

Self-driving cars may sound pretty far out there, but engineers from Google have already test-driven cars that are capable of driving themselves. Self-drive cars use a combination of lasers, cameras and radars in order to read road signs and traffic lights whilst communicating with and receiving information from other vehicles and objects on the road.

It’s amazing how quickly technology advances these days and many people believe we could see self-driving cars on the road within the next decade with many of these other technologies appearing even sooner.