Technology is constantly evolving and has impacted every aspect of our lives, including driving. Driving on the road, as recently as 20 years ago, was a far cry from what it looks like today. In those days, driving was a tasking exercise that could seem daunting at times. You relied mainly on your wits and continuously had to go through a mental checklist as you moved around from place to place.
Today, technology has introduced various ways to take the edge of driving without compromising on safety. Now, there are a host of features that can actually encourage you to get into a car and just set out without a destination in mind. These features are also an indication of what driving will look like in the near future.
10 Parking Assist
It’s one thing to find a parking spot in a crowded mall and quite another to be able to successfully maneuver your way into the vacant slot. However, with the park assist system fitted on modern cars, you never have to worry about that inconvenience anymore. This system uses a combination of sensors, cameras, and radar arrays to not only find a suitable parking spot but will also guide the car into the space without input from the driver. It is a clever piece of technology; quite fascinating to watch.
9 Reverse Assist
Imagine you are at a street intersection and you mistakenly take a left turn instead of a right. Where the roads allow, you may be able to reverse which can be a challenge on narrow streets with little wiggle room. That’s where the reverse assistant comes in. The system memorizes your steering adjustments while driving forward as long as speed is below a particular limit. At the touch of a button, the system takes over and moves the car backwards along the exact same route you took while moving forward – for a preset distance; in the BMWs, it is 150 feet.
8 Adaptive Cruise Control
First, we had cruise control where you would just set a particular speed limit and take your foot off the gas. This is quite useful for long drives but impractical in busy areas that require frequent stopping and acceleration. That’s where Adaptive Cruise Control comes in. The system utilizes a system of radars to calculate the speed of the vehicle ahead of you. Once activated, your car will automatically slow down or speed up to match the vehicle. It was first installed in luxury cars like the Benz S-Class.
7 Head-Up Displays (HUDs)
This is another nifty modern feature that actually serves a very practical function. This technology projects information right on the windshield and stops the driver from having to take his eyes off the road to glance at the dashboard. It was primarily used in military vehicles before civilian carmakers got on the bandwagon. For some HUDs, you can sort through a variety of colors and even customize the information you want in front of you at any point in time.
6 Driver Drowsiness Detection
Fatigue is one of the leading causes of road-accidents worldwide and sadly results in thousands of fatalities annually. Thankfully, this may soon be a thing of the past following the introduction of the Driver Drowsiness Detection system that’s now being rolled out with some modern vehicles. It primarily consists of a sensor array that uses different criteria like blinks-per-minute or lane monitoring to determine how alert the driver is at the wheel. It will then alert the driver either visually or through some other means if it detects a lapse in concentration.
5 Gesture and Voice Controls
Gesture and voice control are clever features of modern driving that aims to reduce distractions while you are on the road. This system allows you to control your car’s infotainment system and other features without reaching for knobs or tapping on a screen (rendering touchscreens obsolete even before it fully took off). You simply wave your hands in a particular way or say things like, ‘Hey, Mercedes, show me the route to the nearest mall.’ It does take a while to get used to but once that happens, traditional controls suddenly feel so dated.
4 Autonomous Driving
The ultimate form of autonomous driving would be to get into your car, tell it where you want to go, and close your eyes for a nap. We are not quite there though there yet but we do have pretty advanced autonomous driving systems in cars like Tesla, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes Benz. Once activated, an intelligent system takes over and can help with scouting for parking spaces, moving out of tight spots, or even taking over the wheel for you when there’s a traffic jam.
3 Blind Spot Warning
There’s that section behind the driver that cannot be covered by the rear-view or side mirrors – that’s the blind spot and being unaware of that can lead to disastrous consequences. It’s one of the reasons why the ‘shoulder check’ component of driving lessons is extremely important. However, most cars today have a camera or sensor system that can check your blind spots for you. If it detects another car in that zone, it will alert you with an audio tone, warning light, or a combination of both.
2 Heat And Massage Functions
Gone are the days when you would be left with a sore back and stiff muscles after a long drive. Once a feature confined to the most luxurious cars, massage seats can now be found even in mid-range vehicles and can help deliver some measure of comfort when needed. Also, in addition to massage seats, you can now have heated seats, steering, door handles, and even armrests – all geared towards making your drive as pleasurable as possible.
1 Ambient Lighting
Several researches have been conducted that have established a link between color and driver attributes like mood, circadian rhythms, and fatigue. Carmakers like Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi did not waste any time to implement this in their cars. You can now buy cars with a wide range of ambient colors, any of which can be activated in an instant, bathing the interior of the car in a warm glow. Some of them are even paired with fragrance dispensing systems to help set just the right mood for the passengers in the car.