It’s safe to say that science fiction is full of malarkey, especially anything produced in the 80’s. We were all so amazed by how quickly the computer was changing things that we assumed this breakneck pace would continue and, in the first years of the new millennium our cars would fly, completely drive themselves, and fix us breakfast.
While it’s safe to say we’re not going to be flying over the interstate anytime soon, we could be seeing some promises fulfilled in the next few years.
Self-Driving Cars
We know Google already has one of these tooling around northern California but how long until we start to see this in our cars? It won’t be too long before we could have cars that would drive themselves on the interstates. It’s not a constant, but when the situation is fitting, we could sit back and maybe take a nap.
Biometric Access
Science fiction loves to have people put their hands on panels to open doors and their eyes in holes to access computers. And you can’t blame them. You feel really cool when you access something with your fingerprints or a face scan. Now that this technology is present in our phones, it’s easy to assume it will show up on our cars soon enough, with us being able to unlock or even start the car with a scan of our thumbs.
HUD Display
Even the best driver must occasionally take their eyes off the road. After all, you can’t check your speed or fuel levels without looking down to the console. That could change soon enough. A HUD (heads up display) would project the relevant information onto the windshield so you can quickly see what you need without ever looking down.
Gesture Controls
As with looking down at the controls, even the best driver must sometimes take their hands off the wheel. Whether it’s changing music or changing the comfort settings, we have to reach over to manually adjust it. One solution is gesture controls. We still have to take our hand off the wheel, but we don’t have to re-adjust or reach over. We simply waggle a finger and the camera tracks it and updates the display.
Holistic Comfort Systems
Mercedes Benz is already teasing an expansive comfort system in the cabin of their new S-Class Sedans. This system would allow you to choose from a series of “moods” and, based on your selection, would scan your personal music for songs with the right beat, add aromatherapy to the cabin, adjust the temperature, and even activate the seat massagers. Sounds great as long as it doesn’t put you to sleep, or comes with those self driving cars we mentioned earlier.
Learning Cars
Having a massage parlor on wheels sounds great, but I still have to choose the settings. Why can’t the car just know what I want? Actually, we’re getting there. Faraday Future just announced the FF 91, a smart car that will learn from their drivers. Depending on the weather and conditions outside, the car will remember how the driver likes the car and set the environmental controls as such.