The Future Car

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The Future Car

Postby Marsbar » Tue Jan 06, 2015 3:57 pm

Somehow I think I'm going to like the future...

The digital dashboard is a gold-rush scramble for territory. There’s money in the dashboard. It’s a place where brand loyalties are formed — traditionally to radio stations, and lately to streaming audio brands. The biggest new players, Google and Apple, are in it for the data ownership, which they can deploy advantageously in other segments of their sprawling businesses.

But what if there were no dashboard at all? Autonomous (self-driving) cars are rolling toward us, and will be on the road sooner or later. Google has been road-testing its autonomous car every day for over a year. How will audio competition be shaped when the car is a WiFi-connected living room?

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And of course it will be great listening to - http://www.nythespirit.com as you roll down the highway.

Touching the Brakes

We’re getting ahead of ourselves, admittedly. The challenge of putting autonomous cars on the road is larger than technology hurdles. Even if safety is proven, there are regulatory unknowns, liability quagmires in accident scenarios, and general mistrust among skeptical consumers. When I mentioned self-driving cars to my wife, she said, “My computer doesn’t work right. Why would I trust a car?”

Digital dashboards and connected cars have been a growing presence at CES for several years, and their collective footprint this year is a record. Ten automakers are occupying space on the colossal CES exhibit floor. Ford, the first company to venture into the leading geek-tech conference in 2007, is showing five cars in a two-story showcase. Execs from Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and GM will give keynote speeches.

Not all digital dashboard innovations are about audio and “infotainment” — the convenient buzzword for all kinds of in-car radio, traditional and online. GM will announce this week an expansion of its OnStar connected system, stepping beyond safety values to … shopping. (I mentioned money in the dashboard, right?) OnStar representatives will provide live information about special deals at participating merchants near the car’s location.

Visions

But the most startling and forward-looking presentations at CES (so far) are self-driving cars. Not all the presentations are formal — Ford CEO Mark Fields told a dinner meeting of investors last night in Vegas: “Probably, in the next five years, you’ll see somebody introduce autonomous vehicles.” (Unhappy news for my wife.)

Mercedes-Benz put its product where its mouth is, bringing a conceptual self-driving car to the CES floor. Called the F015 Luxury in Motion, it is a design concept, not a road-ready autonomous car. Interestingly, the seats face each other, living room style.

If that is the conceptual future, and if it’s coming soon, will it usurp the current gold rush onto digital dashboards? (I’m reminded of CD-ROMs, touted as essential media distribution in the early 1990s, and knocked out of the picture by the web. And skeptics should keep in mind that nobody predicted the web would grow as it did in five years.)

Infotainment controls will still be necessary in self-driving cars. But the F015 concept is more like a living room or office than a car of today. Perhaps the driver’s personal controls — mobile devices, mainly smartphones today — will assert absolute control in the autonomous car. They are largely in control now, even as automakers accelerate their tech development cycles to accommodate consumer expectation of connectivity. If you don’t need to look at the road, you might as well be looking at your personal screens — which too many drivers are doing anyway.
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Re: The Future Car

Postby tomcruzz » Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:14 am

doesn't seem the best, but at least we have a glimpse of the future. well, there are other designs we can do. other car companies are having their own futuristic cars

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