Technologies

We expect a great deal from the cars of the future. We want new vehicles to be super efficient while also delivering strong performance. Beyond that, future cars are expected to offer a wide range of features that help drivers both on the road and in the parking lot, all while remaining simple and comfortable to use. Here are ten innovative technologies that vehicles are likely to feature in the coming years.

Solar Chargers

Although this technology was introduced quite some time ago, it hasn’t become widespread in the automotive industry due to high costs. A major breakthrough in solar technology is expected soon, however, with production costs projected to drop by a factor of ten.

Solar panels built into a car can help charge the battery or power systems like the air conditioning or infotainment unit. This offers a great way to reduce fuel consumption without sacrificing vehicle performance.

As solar technology becomes more affordable, it’s increasingly likely that solar panels will become standard equipment on many vehicles in the near future.

Head-Up Display

If you’ve driven a car equipped with head-up display technology (HUD), which projects key information directly onto the windshield, you’ve probably noticed that its benefits go beyond simple convenience. Projecting information onto the windshield actually improves driver safety.

A driver who has constant access to key information, such as fuel level, engine temperature and speed, stays less distracted by these details and can focus more on the road. This technology is currently offered as an added option mainly in premium vehicles, but it’s expected to become standard equipment in many mid-range cars soon, eventually making its way into more affordable models as well.

Head-up display is widely considered one of the best automotive features to emerge in recent years. It’s worth noting that this technology originated in military aircraft, where it helped pilots make split-second decisions.

Clutchless Manual Transmission

Nissan was the first to introduce this technology, in its 370Z sports car. While many automakers argue that manual transmissions are outdated and that automatics are simply superior, that’s not entirely accurate, particularly for sports cars that need maximum acceleration without any loss of speed. In 2009, Nissan became the first company in the world to introduce a system that shifts gears and synchronizes engine RPM using a mechanical transmission with no clutch involved.

It’s quite possible that this technology will find its way into many more vehicles in the near future. Compared to an automatic transmission, a manual gearbox tends to be more fuel efficient.

Harnessing Engine Waste Heat

Combustion engines generate a large amount of thermal energy, most of which currently goes unused. The automotive industry recently introduced regenerative braking systems, which help save fuel and reduce harmful emissions. A single wheel, for example, releases around 96 kJ of heat energy during braking, energy that specialized equipment can now convert into electrical power. This energy is then fed back into the car’s electrical system, where it helps recharge the battery in either a conventional or hybrid vehicle. This technology has been advancing rapidly in recent years and is expected to appear in many affordable vehicles within the next five to seven years.

KERS Flywheel System

This system was first used in Formula 1 racing and allows energy generated during engine operation and braking to be stored and later used to give the car an extra boost of acceleration. The system is currently being tested in a production Jaguar XJ.

Kinetic energy recovery, once available only in high-performance supercars, is gradually making its way into everyday passenger vehicles. It’s really just a matter of time before mid-range cars adopt KERS technology as well. Notably, a properly designed flywheel system doesn’t just boost overall performance; it can also increase maximum torque by 20 to 30 percent.

Intelligent Vehicle Suspension

What seemed like science fiction just 10 to 15 years ago is now available at a relatively modest cost: adaptive suspension systems using magnetic shock absorbers, offered as an optional feature. In the near future, fully intelligent suspension systems are expected to hit the market, using an array of sensors and electronic control units to continuously monitor road surface conditions in real time.

Information about bumps and road surface quality gets relayed to a dedicated onboard computer, which uses specialized algorithms to predict how the wheels will respond to uneven terrain and adjusts the electronic suspension accordingly to minimize impact. This approach delivers both maximum ride comfort and significant savings on wear and tear to the vehicle’s suspension components.

Falling Carbon Fiber Costs

In the years ahead, automakers looking to reduce fuel consumption will increasingly turn to lightweight materials like carbon fiber in vehicle construction. The cost of this material has dropped considerably in recent years, making its widespread adoption across the industry essentially inevitable at this point. It’s entirely possible that within 10 to 15 years, more than half of most cars’ construction will consist of carbon fiber.

Camshaft-Free Engines

An engine without a camshaft can reduce harmful emissions and boost performance without increasing fuel consumption. Several automakers have already researched this technology and are prepared to begin large-scale production of camshaft-free engines in the future.

Rather than relying on camshafts, these engines use electromagnetic, hydraulic or pneumatic actuators to control fuel injection valves.

Autopilot Technology

Skeptics who once dismissed the idea that electronics could soon control a car without driver involvement have turned out to be wrong. Today, cars equipped with automated driving systems are already on the road.

Many vehicles now come with automated parking assistance, allowing the car to park itself without any driver input. This system relies on a network of sensors that alert the vehicle to nearby obstacles.

Alternative Fuels

Even if nothing changes over the next decade, the world will almost certainly face a genuine shortage of oil reserves within the next 20 to 30 years, driving up the cost of conventional automotive fuel significantly. This makes the search for new fuel sources an increasingly urgent priority for the automotive industry. Unfortunately, no true alternative to oil has been found so far. Every other fuel source proposed as a replacement for gasoline and diesel comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks, which has kept any of them from achieving widespread adoption.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles, for instance, haven’t seen broad adoption because hydrogen requires large, specialized storage containers. On top of that, a massive supporting infrastructure would be needed worldwide, and virtually none of that infrastructure currently exists. Electric vehicles are likely still 50 to 70 years away from becoming a serious replacement for combustion-engine cars, largely because current battery technology offers limited range and requires frequent recharging.

New batteries with significantly greater energy capacity aren’t expected to arrive anytime soon. To genuinely replace conventional fuel, batteries would need to store many times more energy while being dramatically lighter and smaller, a combination that isn’t realistic given where battery technology stands today.

The question of what fuel will power the cars of the future therefore remains open. It’s possible that within the next decade, a new, environmentally friendly and affordable alternative fuel could emerge and reshape the entire industry, potentially giving rise to entirely new kinds of vehicles within 10 to 20 years, vehicles that may look nothing like the cars we know today.

AUSMAH follows all of these emerging technologies closely, recognizing that the future of trucking will be shaped by exactly this kind of innovation. From energy efficiency and intelligent suspension to autonomous driving systems and alternative fuel sources, these are the same directions AUSMAH considers when developing its own vision for the next generation of intelligent trucks.