Cars of the Future

['97ventureowner]

Something else that would be nice for ALL vehicles would be the addition of IPAS (Intelligent Parking Assist System) or APGS ( Advanced Parking Guidance System) to assist vehicles in parking themselves. Can you imagine how much extra parking spaces we could acquire on the streets and parking lots if every vehicle had this option as standard equipment?

[Shortbus]

My car of the future would be able to tell....
1. If the operator was to intoxicated to drive and not permit movement of the vehicle if so.
2. able to understand the operator fell asleep at the wheel and safely shutdown and pull off to the side of the road.
3. able to measure or take vitals of operators constantly to detect health issues that would prohibit an operator from driving safely. If vitals were inconsistant with good health then the car shuts down and pulls off to the side of the road.

We have learned to do a lot of things in a short time, and make unmanned vehicles operate intelligbly far away... One would hope we can make driving the roads safer by having preventable accident diagnostics available in cars/trucks/racecars/planes/trains ect. in the future.

Maybe a car could detect a heart attack, or seizure coming on who knows...

[Moppie]

The new Tesla S has to be a car of the future, but it's interesting to see how conventional it is.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by Shortbus

My car of the future would be able to tell....
1. If the operator was to intoxicated to drive and not permit movement of the vehicle if so.

They just passed a law in our area that requires those with a DWI conviction to install an aftermarket device where they have to blow into a tube to determine if they are sober and can operate the vehicle. It also requires them to recheck at "random' intervals while in the vehicle to make sure they are still sober or that no one else is attempting to pose as the person for whom the device is meant. I have a feeling that this will eventually catch on in other areas and within a few short years carmakers will find a way to incorporate a similar device into their vehicles.

Another thing I recently saw in a movie that I thought would be a neat addition to future cars would be the option for auto glass to self tint according to current light conditions. A sensor could operate in the same manner as the headlight sensor and trigger the windows to darken themselves or vice-versa depending upon how light/dark it is outside. There would also have to be a manual override for the driver.
You could go a step further and make it possible for certain windows to be darker or lighter than the others as well.
I've seen some windows for homes that have 2 panes of glass with a special liquid in between the panes. To darken the window, an electric charge is administered that causes the liquid chemical to darken. It operates on a rheostat and can be controlled on the degree of darkness desired. This technology could definitely make the leap from the home building industry to the automotive industry.