For the past few years or so, the motorcar has been a way for car manufacturers and tech companies to showcase their technology advancements to modernise our daily commutes. Here’s a couple of future automotive car tech trends, which might improve the way we live with our cars. From being connected to Facebook while driving to just saving a few drops of fuel, our drive to work will be far from boring…
Number 5: Battery Power and Electrification
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| *Courtesy of extremetech.com |
Cars like the
Nissan Leaf run solely on battery power (And no they’re not AA batteries). The
benefit of electric cars are priceless! Less pollution, less fuel wastage and no
emissions from electric cars are few of the key benefits of running an electric
car. Though the choices of electric cars in Malaysia are pretty restricted, the
global growth of electric cars and the importance of electric cars in the world
are steadily increasing to reduce emissions and pollution and to preserve mineral
resources as well.
Number 4: More Efficient Engines
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| *Courtesy of the movementbureau.blogs.com |
There’s no running away from the fact that the internal combustion engine is going to be our best friend and companion for a very long time, but that may not be a very bad thing. Sometime’s being clingy can be a good thing too (Does not apply to girlfriends). From cars like the Honda Insight Hybrid to the latest BMW 318i, car companies downsize their engines to make them more economical and polar-bear-friendly. This is done to minimise fuel usage and to maximise efficiency so that global warming doesn’t disturb those polar bears up there.
Number 3: Connected Cars
The term ‘connected’ may be a bit general, but in the
car industry it means that a car has some form of data connectivity. BMW
taglines their form of car connectivity as “ConnectedDrive: So connected you’re
free.” Connected ‘features’ such as Facebook in a BMW will help you get to your
next party on time via Facebook Places & Events. Certain cars even have
“Bluetooth audio streaming” which allows you to play music from your phone to
your car wirelessly, which might give you less reason to take that long walk to
your friend’s house and just have more fun and drive there.
Number 2: Autonomous Driving or “Autopilot”
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| *Courtesy of auto-bild.de |
Haven’t we
all had a dream whereby one day we would be able to catch up on some sleep on
the way to work, because we were busy working our butts off settling that
assignment our bosses gave us? Worry no more because, the automotive industry
sees a near future with cars driving themselves (SAFELY, of course). Cars like
the Tesla Model S and the Audi RS7 are already implementing semi-autonomous
driving assistance such as helping to change lanes when you turn on your
signals or braking when there’s a car in front. These “driver assistance
features” will change the very way we move from home to
work and vice versa and in return giving us more time to maybe, play candy
crush or etc.
Number 1: Less Weight, More POWERRRR!
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| *Courtesy of alfaromeousa.com |
If you did go to high school, and studied science,
you’d probably understand why less weight equals better performance. Materials
like carbon and aluminium, all emphasise lightness while providing strength. A
car as an example would be the new Alfa Romeo 4C which boasts 237 horsepower
and an ultra-low weight under 1000kg which is like strapping a rocket to a
skateboard.In simple terms, a car can move faster when its light and at the
same time improve fuel consumption, also you’d be doing Mother Nature a favour
and your geography teacher doesn’t have to continue mumbling away about the
environment, ozone layers and etc.
