All Hands On Tech

We look at some of the technology that will shape the cars of the near future as well as the roads on which they drive.

- Claire Evans

IT’S PREDICTED THAT cars will change more in the next five to 10 years than they have over the past 50. The driving forces behind the changes are improving road safety, lowering emissions and taking some of the stress out of driving.

Some advances will be tied in with the increased uptake of electric cars, but the biggest influences will be automated driving technologies and connectedness. These are set to transform the whole driving experience.

Safety testing body Euro NCAP is pushing ahead with its Vision Zero ambition to stop people from dying on the road. In doing so, it has set out a timeline for 2020-2025 of when it will start testing a range of new technologies.

From 2020, it will test automatic emergency steering, driver monitoring systems and automatic emergency braking systems that work at junctions and when you’re reversing out of a parking space. You should find these technologies on the latest models by then, because they’ll be necessary to gain Euro NCAP’s full five-star safety rating, an accolade that every mainstream car maker strives for.

Cars won’t only be able to protect people from harm; they’ll also be capable of giving you lots of useful, real-time information. For example, you’ll be able to ask the car to find you a restaurant, reserve you a parking spot nearby and then give you directions to get there. And if your car is driving autonomously, it could even project a three-dimensional digital avatar to keep you company.

More than half of the cars in the world are already connected to the internet, and future vehicles will also communicate with each other, road infrastructure, intelligent junctions and smart street lamps in a network known as the Internet of Things. Your car will be able to use all the information these upload to give you advance warning of any potential hazards or hold-ups along your chosen route.

Safety-enhancing systems