Innovation’s the name of the game

Following on from the theme of ever increasing car gadgetry and the fact that the new generation of car buyers are more likely to view a car in the same way the view a smart phone (Cars are more like iPhones to the new car buying generation)it does make you wonder what possible extra devices a car could potentially have in the future. After all a car is basically a device to get you from one place to another so making that simple process more efficient, more safe or more comfortable can’t be a bottomless pit of ingenuity, or can it?

I recently assisted a friend in acquiring a new BMW X5 which had a staggering £15,000 worth of extras by the time he had finished “speccing it up” and some of them were things I’d never heard of or would never have considered.

However with some of the more innovative safety extras it is encouraging that along with build quality improvements like lane alarms to alert you should you start wavering on the motorway will definitely save lives.

There are bound to be all kinds of apps available for added in-car entertainment and the likelihood is, as we spend more time in our cars touring Britain and Europe, these extra comfort features may encourage more people to do more travelling by car.

We already see in Formula 1 cars that computers can track and monitor performance every second of the race and make small adjustments and tweaks all the time as a result. So it’s likely therefore that it’s only a matter of time before more sophisticated road cars have similar technology especially with many cars retailing at well over £50k; buyers want a lot of car for that kind of cash. There is a long list of improvements in road cars that have come from motor sport; improved aerodynamics, start/stop technology and kinetic energy recovery to name just a three so if you want to know what the road car of the future can do keep one eye on motor sport.

We now have a car that can park itself I wonder how long it will be before we actually have a car that can drive itself? Oh yeah we already have… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

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