Accident Free Driving

Cars of the future will use high tech electronics to assist drivers in a wide variety of ways. Vehicles will communicate with each other, with the road and with traffic signals. Autos and trucks of the future will use vision enhancement devices to help you navigate through bad weather and warn you of a possible collision with a pedestrian or animal. They will also let you know if you are getting drowsy or straying from your lane. Cars of the future will be radically different than the automobiles of today, and so will the driving experience.

Obstacle detection, collision avoidance and intersection warning systems are being tested right now by governments and automobile manufacturers. Radio signals, sensors and cameras, future vehicles will help avoid accidents by examining the environment in real time and notifying the driver of potential problems.

Autos That Talk and Listen

While you are driving, your vehicles will communicate with the cars and trucks around you. Your future car will notify you when trucks are merging into your lane or motorcycles are in your blind spot. Smart intersections will sense vehicles from all directions and alert you of a possible collision.

Vision Enhancement

In vehicle vision enhancement systems will improve visibility for night driving, inadequate lighting, fog, drifting snow, or other inclement weather driving  conditions

User Interface

Cars of the future will do a better job of keeping your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. Voice recognition will provide a hands free way of accessing your on board computer and navigation system. But your on board computer may do more than talk back. Haptic interfaces are human/computer interfaces with a more human touch. Haptics exploits human behavior, since people are more likely to pay attention to tactile cues than visual cues. With haptic interfaces, a computer could receive or convey information through touch, pressure, force or vibration. For example, sensors embedded in the exterior of a car could feel if it's veering too close to another vehicle. That message could be relayed to the driver's seat, which could alert the driver with a tap on the back. 

Cars of Tomorrow

The cars of tomorrow will be much more efficient than the gas guzzling cars of today. What kind of car will you be driving in 2020? in 2050? Will it still run on gasoline or will it be electric, solar, hydrogen or some other fuel?

The students at West Philly High School decided to shape their own future. They built the "Hybrid Attack" and won the Tour De Sol Competition for a car that runs on soybean oil made in their garage! 
Read more 

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

In the near future, hydrogen fuel cells will change our lives. These fuel cells will power our vehicles, homes and offices more efficiently and will be less harmful to the environment than traditional energy sources. Fuel cells using pure hydrogen do not emit any air pollutants or greenhouse gases.  Learn more 

Driverless Transportation

Mass transit in the future will be low cost, personalized and environmentally friendly.  Magnetic strips in roadways could guide electric vehicles along trackable paths. Lasers could allow driverless trucks to back up to the loading dock with space age precision.

Here are some online articles that can help you learn more about the future of driverless transit.

PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) - The ULTra system from ATS in the UK uses a fleet of low power, electrically driven vehicles on a dedicated guideway network of routes. 

Automated Transportation with Laserguided Vehicles  - The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics 

Driverless Car Hits the Streets of the French Riviera 

Driverless Train System Open for Business in Singapore  

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