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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.
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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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