Technology and Automobiles have been inseparable partners since the inception of automotive technology. In 2019, these two will be further integrated to create some amazing and very useful features that will make the driving experience much smoother.
On Steering Fingerprint Sensor
Hyundai has announced that their SUV Santa Fe will receive a fingerprint sensor that will not only unlock their cars but also start them. There will be fingerprint scanners on the exterior door handle as well as the start button. There are immense possibilities of different use cases. A car that is driven by multiple people in a household can be configured according to the fingerprint. Everything from Air conditioner settings, music playlists to seat settings can be modified according to the user and saved in memory. It has possibilities of getting configured according to different fingerprints of different drivers. However, that is a faraway dream at the moment. Nevertheless, we would love to see some aspects of this car technology in 2019.
Smarter Parking Sensors
One of the biggest problems of driving, specially in bigger and more populated cities, is parking your car. From finding a space that would fit your car to parallel parking without scratching others’ or your own car. Parking sensors will definitely become smarter in 2019. German parts supplier Bosch recently showcased a technology that let’s your car measure spaces between cars and finds your parking spot for you as you drive along. Showcased at CES, this technology is being currently tested in Germany and later this year in LA, Miami, Boston and more American cities.
Personal Assistants in car
In 2018, personal assistants invaded our houses and now most of us cannot live without them. Why not have the same for our cars? Amazon Alexa is said to be soon integrated into cars where you can ask Alexa about the weather, make a call on the speakerphone, change music and more. All of this while you keep an eye on the road. Toyota is the latest manufacturer to introduce Amazon’s Alexa cloud-based voice control to some of its vehicles while many others such as Ford, BMW, and Volkswagen have already announced partnerships. This car technology will be great in terms of driver safety and will also be a handful feature for passengers as well.
X-Ray Vision and Enhanced HUD’s for your car
Well, when we mean X-Ray vision, we don’t mean Batmobile-esque features that will let you see through cars. In-fact if you could see through cars you would crash more often. If anything, this feature helps you prevent crashes. Chip manufacturer Qualcomm recently revealed a concept called “Vehicle to Everything”. This will integrate a chip on every car allowing cars to communicate between one another and avoid crashes. The chip will also be able to communicate with infrastructures such as traffic lights or road signs up ahead warning the driver of incoming dangers or alert the driver in general. Trials of the tech will take place in San Diego and Detroit.
Smarter, faster electric cars
Tesla fought the hard battle of bringing electric cars and trying to make it mainstream when the entire industry scoffed. Now the power of electric vehicles have become apparent and the technology has evolved substantially. This has led to many manufacturers including luxury car and sports car manufacturers such as Audi, Porsche, Mercedes and even BMW have joined the bandwagon. Cars such as BMW i3, Mercedes-Benz EQC, Audi e-tron and Porsche Taycan are all set to be launched in 2019. These cars and the more number of players in this category will make electric vehicles smarter, faster and better performing.
