AUTOMOBILE
Even before the first car was invented, some people were trying to imagine what type of vehicle we’d be using in the future. As early as 1882, artist Albert Robida imagined a future where we’d visit the opera in our own flying machine.But flying was only one of the themes envisaged for the cars of the future. Back in 1918, an article in the Washington Times announced that the cars of tomorrow “Will be constructed like a moving drawing room”. An image from the time shows families sitting and reading inside a car with expansive windows. Nobody wears a seatbelt, and nobody’s actually driving.
In fact, the lack of a driver is a recurring prediction about the future of cars. While engineers and designers spent decades making cars more enjoyable for us to drive, popular films and fiction dreamed time and time again of nobody having to! There was Herbie, the friendly Volkswagen Beetle, from the Love Bug; Christine, the murderous Plymouth Fury in the cult horror movie of the same name; and Johnny Cab, the driver-less taxi that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character hails.
The real car of the future: it’s electric
Flying and talking cars aside, there’s now little doubt that the car of the future will be electric. Sales of electric cars have tripled in a year: in September 2020, 21,900 were registered; compared to 7,700 electric cars in the same period in 2019. And from 2030, you won’t even be able to buy a new petrol or diesel car.
Tesla says that its cars already come with the hardware they’ll need for ‘full self-driving capabilities’ in the future. And already, Tesla drivers can get a taste of what’s in store with Autopilot: probably the most advanced driving assistance feature on cars today. It steers, brakes and accelerates your Tesla automatically within its lane on the motorway. But unlike those self-driving cars of the future, you have to keep your hands on the wheel… for now, at least.
Many electric cars feature advanced safety technology, designed to reduce the likelihood of a crash• MONIKA VALDOM
Voice control has gone from the realm of sci-fi to a feature of our everyday lives. ‘Hey, Google’, ‘Alexa’ and ‘Siri’ are now part of our modern lexicon. Using Apple Carplay and Android Auto, we can use our voice to navigate, select music and check the weather while driving. Some electric cars come with their own voice control system. So you can change the car’s settings with your voice, even down to the colour of the interior lights. In Mercedes’ EQC 400, you can use hand gestures to control your ‘infotainment’ instead. So your eyes remain firmly fixed on the road ahead.
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