Regardless of how long of a road trip you’re planning to take, you probably want your means of transport to be as comfortable as possible. After all, you’ll be spending quite some time in your ride, so it’s important to have everything you need; the right gadgets, tools, and apps in your car can make the whole trip much smoother and more enjoyable. So, if you love traveling with your four-wheeled friend, here are some innovations in car technology that are likely to make your road trips much more memorable.
Wi-fi
Simple but vital – many gadgets and technological advances can’t work if there is no Internet available, so turning your car into a hotspot on wheels is one of the first things on many manufacturers’ list. Ford already has this technology in some of its models, and Toyota is working on developing it. When perfected, this system will also be able to connect to your own home network, which will allow you to transport information from your home pc to your car and vice versa.
Augmented reality
Having augmented reality display on your windscreen could make your car much more functional because it will be much easier to see things like your car speed, navigation details, and even the phone-related information such as the incoming calls and messages. The downside, though, is that it obviously wouldn’t work very well when the weather is too sunny and your surroundings too bright since you wouldn’t be able to see the information on the screen clearly.
Communication between vehicles
Now, this doesn’t involve any middle fingers and no, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to call the car in front of you and yell at it to speed up or let you pass. It’s more about cars sharing different helpful data with one another so there’s less traffic and more safety. For instance, this type of communication will be able to warn you if there is a car approaching from your blind spot, so you can react in time.
More fun
There is a lot of emphasis on enhancing the whole traveling experience, since cars as living spaces can greatly change our lives. In other words, they won’t be just a means of transport but also entertainment units. Sure, you might already have a stereo in your car, but this goes beyond that. Music, TV, Wi-fi, applications, etc. will no longer be just an addition to your car but rather a focus and a part of your home. You have to agree that this point of view truly adds more fun and excitement to the idea of road tripping.
Voice recognition
Almost as important as the mobile hotspot, this innovation will enable you to control almost everything in your car with your voice. This can also reduce the risk of accidents by a great amount, especially if you take into consideration all the other innovations that require us to use our eyes and hands in order to control them. This is still somewhat of a novelty, even in the smartphone world, but there is a great need for it to be successful in the field of car industry and many companies are working day and night to make this possible.
Invisible drivers and copilots
Technically, this already exists and is being tested in many countries, but it’s still not a common occurrence nor a part of our daily lives. Having a copilot in your car could help you successfully manage that insanely hard parallel parking, it could detect the distance between you and another car, and adjust your car’s speed to the speed of the cars around you. It would also be able to use sensor technologies in order to avoid any lateral collisions. You must agree that you could definitely use such an innovation, especially if you like traveling alone and being on the road for a long time, which is sure to affect your concentration from time to time.
Road trips are always fun if you have a car that can handle it, plenty of delicious food, and a good company. However, with these future innovations, such trips will reach a completely new level of entertainment. Your trips will be safer, and you might even find yourself looking forward to the time you’ll spend reaching your destination just as much as to the destination itself.
