There are new technological developments nearly every single day and it’s only natural that some of these are changing our cars. These have been changing everything, from how we drive to the way we keep ourselves secure on the roads. Join us as we take a look at the biggest tech changes that are switching up the automotive industry.
Digital Licence Plates
Licence plates could be changing, as nationals in Dubai have been trialling digital licence plates. These could work by implementing a smart chip, which is able to communicate with other licence plates and even emergency services. These will come equipped with GPS tracking and be able to transmit information in the event of a crash.
These could certainly come in handy, but it would be sad to see the decline of private plates. These could augment existing plates, rather than replacing personal plates altogether however. This scheme is being trialled in Dubai now and is planned to run until November.
After this period, the government will assess whether it has been successful and whether they will be rolling it out to other cars beyond the trial group.
In terms of private car registrations, Dubai is a major purchaser of these. The UAE accounts for a huge part of the purchasing power within the world of private registrations, with some fetching up to £6.6million at auction. Recently, one Dubai national snapped up a coveted D5 plate, to add to his massive collection of personalised registrations.
When you consider that these nationals love their personalised number plates, they may not want to swap these for a digital version. Within the next few decades, we could see this new tech totally push out the need for any registrations. Those with personalised plates may end up selling them at sites like British Car Registrations (who also have a how to guide on selling your numberplate) before this happens or they may be something of a relic.
Double digit personal car registrations are the most popular for this market, as they add a certain sense of superiority – even when being added to supercars. In this flash country, private number plates can be seen all over the roads – the shorter the better!
The market for per is still going strong. We may see personalised car registrations being augmented with tech in the future, but Dubai is definitely an early adopter of this trend. This country tends to lead the way with tech, so if it goes well then we may see others following this pattern.
Digital plates definitely have the potential to improve life for drivers, especially if they can summon emergency services on impact. We’d imagine that more people will plump to add to their private registration plates with this tech, rather than doing away with them. Hybrid licence plates will likely become more common as this tech enters mainstream use.
Self-Driving Cars
Self-driving cars seemed like they would be on our roads in no time, but there have been some complications in the implementation of this tech. It’s difficult to get it to a stage where it’s road ready with the same judgement as a human driver. There have been some accidents with these cars, which has set them back a fair bit.
No doubt as the tech becomes more refined, these cars will become safer. Elon Musk has said that there are situations in which human drivers can be more accurate, but this shouldn’t put us off the technology. For long haul drives cross country, these cars can easily navigate motorway traffic. The issues start to creep in when they have to make decisions on split second events, like accidents or freak weather.
Audi are working hard to create technology that augments the way that we drive, rather than replacing the human behind the wheel. Their sensors and tech can anticipate some things well before a human driver, by alerting them the driver can adjust their driving style to compensate.
On newer cars, this can even be displayed on an HUD that overlays the windscreen. It’s amazing to think how this can relay information to a driver, without distracting them from the road.
This kind of tech is vastly useful for drivers and has the potential to really improve safety on the roads. It would be great to see this technology offered in more mainstream cars, instead of just the luxury ones out there.
Early studies suggest that this tech could make our roads safer by cutting down on intoxicated or tired drivers. While we have to wait for the trials to completed before these are available on the mainstream market, it’s one to watch out for.
Gesture Control
When you’re fiddling with the radio, you’re not paying attention to your driving. Gesture controls could make this a thing of the past, as you could switch songs and change the volume with just a flick of the wrist. Again, this would make things safer for drivers, as they’re less likely to be rear ended by someone that’s not paying enough attention.
Motion controls have been getting more popular in a lot of our tech, but it really can be hit and miss. With this kind of technology, it really has to be spot on for it to actually be useful. If you don’t get the desired response from these controls, then you’re likely to become distracted and that’s a dangerous thing when you’re driving.
Smart speaker technology might be a more realistic way to control these aspects of the car, as you can just shout to your radio to turn it down. BMW are getting into the market by bringing an Alexa on board, so this could be the route that they go down in future.
Smart devices could also report valuable statistics back, as they are able to connect with the internet. This could also be used to help in the case of an accident, as the driver could report this without having to use a phone.
Augmented Reality
You might have heard of this tech from the smash hit game, Pokemon GO, but there are hundreds of different applications. One that could be used in the automotive industry is an augmented reality windscreen, which could be used for navigation. You wouldn’t need to rely on a sat nav talking to you, you could actually see the route that you should be following on the screen.
This seems like a fantastic idea to lessen driver distraction, as you’re not trying to look at a map and the road in front of you at the same time. Our cars would be more intelligent and this would make things much easier for drivers – especially those that struggle with directions.
This is just one of the applications that this could have, as there are loads of ways this could add to the driving experience. From a purely aesthetic point of view, BMW have now added augmented reality into their app. This allows the user to customise a car exactly the way they want it and then shows them what it would look like on their driveway.
We’re certain that forward thinking companies like Google, Apple and Tesla will get pioneering with this tech. Tech in cars is becoming more prominent day by day, so we’re excited to see what the future holds for the automotive industry.
