Glimpses into the future of carmaking

By Jennifer Rankin - 18.04.2008 / 00:00 CET

Carmakers are looking into technologies that will making driving easier and much safer. Jennifer Rankin reports

In November 2007 an unusual convoy of cars arrived at a disused airforce base in Victorville, California. Eleven unmanned robot cars travelled around the airbase, stopped, started and performed complex manoeuvres that test the patience of many human drivers, such as parallel parking. The event, a competition organised by the US Department of Defense, hints at the possibilities for the cars of the future.

Please log in to read this article:

Don't have a login yet?

Discover your benefits and register for free now! It only takes a minute.

Fact file

Intelligent innovations

Autonomous cruise control: automatically adjusts vehicle speed. The European Commission estimates that if 3% of vehicles were equipped with this system by 2010, 4,000 accidents per year could be avoided.
õ Driver drowsiness monitoring and warning: a system that responds to a slowing heart beat, a change in facial expressions or in the inclination of the head by commanding the driver to wake up. Driver hypervigilance could prevent 30% of crashes on motorways and 9% of all crashes.
eCall: in-car sensors that send a message to emergency services after a car crash, relaying the car's location and the time of the accident. The Commission wants all vehicles equipped with eCall by 2010.
õ Gear shift indicator: a device that instructs drivers when to shift up or shift down a gear. If motorists pay attention, they should save fuel and money.
Obstacle and collision warning: warns the driver if a collision is imminent.
Speed limit warnings: audio and visual alerts tell speeding drivers when they are in breach of the legal limit.