What will Cars of Tomorrow be Like?

Chris Pirillo Mac vs PC: LEGO Brickfilming Books-A-Million Coupons My Parents Were in a Car Accident What is the Future of Air Travel?What will Cars of Tomorrow be Like?

No Wheels: Not sure how this one’s gonna work. Without using magnets (Which would require pretty much new highways and roads… everywhere…) I don’t see how this could be done. Then again, I’m not a scientist.

Renewable Energy!: I’m betting on solar power. If we find a way to mass produce solar panels that can absorb a large percentage of the Sun’s power, then we could literally power the world for FAR cheaper then we’re doign currently.

Free Content / Full HUD / Automatic Driving: Free content: NEVER! Why? Because all the companies of today will do absolutely nothing for free. Full HUD? I’m betting we’ll see that in the next 10 – 20 years, easy. They’re already getting closer and closer to that with newer car models. Automatic Driving? I don’t see this one happening any time soon. I’d personally rather see our Driver’s Ed become more strict, teaching people how to drive defensively instead of in a white hot rage. Germany has higher speed limits and WAY less crashes then we do in North America. Why? Because all of our drivers are absolutely retarded and / or self centered.

Flying around – I can’t believe that that will be common unless it’s coupled with “car does the driving” – think about the number of crashes there are at present where drivers only have to deal with a 2-dimensional mental map of surrounding hazards.

Renewable energy – increasingly happening here in Europe. The hybrid and fully electric cars there are tend to sell out very very quickly, and supply is the problem, not demand – that’s the sort of problem that the invisible hand of the market is very, very, good at fixing.

HUD – I’ve seen cars with HUD – the most useful feature isn’t the overlay of the telemetry onto the windscreen… but the options for overlaying an IR feed of the road ahead – THAT sorts out ability to see deer way better than putting the speedo in the viewscreen :-)

Automated driving – it’s happening, but at the moment, the solutions are proprietary. Things like Toyota drivetrain work very well… for a convoy of Toyotas (emitters at the back of the cars in front can convey better info to the receiver at the front of the car behind than you can do just with “radar-type” sensing… since you can feed things like road bend radii and therefore turning requirements as well as just speed.

Sadly, the next innovation to hit the mainstream is likely to be manufacturer-fitted GPS that broadcasts regularly to government agencies – used for everything from road pricing (which, after the London experiment is growing in Europe and Asia) to speeding-detection… Forget about looking out for cops or cameras – your car itself will let on when you’re doing 95 and the fine will be automatic.

Chris,

I am afraid that you are wrong about flying cars. They are just not practical. It takes so much energy to make a car fly! You would have to build a small plane to do this! Unless we figure out how to make anti-gravity machines, cars will never fly.

You’re right about renewable energy though. Cars in the future must be powered by hydrogen! Gas is getting too expensive, and it is a matter of national security that we find an alternative fuel source.

There is no doubt that cars will be able to get online in the future. We are even seeing this capability demonstrated today in one of GM’s concept cars. Along with your dashboard being integrated into your windshield.

You are wrong again though about automated driving. That would require every car to be connected to one central computer. Each car then would give information to other cars, and hopefully our cars would not collide. But to do this is impractical! It would take billions to make a computer that could handle all of that data and then give it back to every car. Also, in order to make this system work you would have to outlaw all cars without a special computer to get instructions, so in other words, you would have to make every car standardized. Last problem: what about a terrorist attack? If one terrorist took out the computer or caused just one accident…..just think about the chaos.

So, in my opinion automated cars are just not practical at all. Maybe automated subways or trains, but just not cars.

I believe that the highest priority right now is to eliminate the gasoline cars. I read about a group of people who are working on a car that runs on compressed air. The car would come with a battery, just to get it running, then the air coming in would be compressed and used to power the car. Even as the car comes to a stop, the friction of the brakes can be used to charge the battery up. It’s almost as if you drive your car for free.

Oh man… the cars of tomorrow?? Try the cars of today! They’ve had water-powered technology (for example) patented and proven to work… but from the looks of it, since gas powered vehicles were cheaper and quicker to make (not to mention the companies pushed them through with a lot more ambition than the latter)… they got dogged down to the backlines. Now that oil companies have a good reign on the territory, they’ve been buying out the rights and hiding the technology away from society.

I would honestly argue that the majority of this is already down on paper… it’s just that no one’s allowing it to go any further than that!

Kind Regards,
-Shaina

kat, where in central indiana are you?

its called free market,these oil barons have made your life easy dufus.

Isn’t this the video of the previous post?
A cool feature of cars now days is the self parking system from Lexus. Or there is also a cool thing which projects information on to the front window. Future cars would have much more windows and space in the inside and they also could have some community system for example you want to go to a friend the type it in and the car looks he’s address from gmail contacts and shows it you on the GPS screen.

I think cars of the future should be energy independent so that refueling never has to be a concern or at least almost never has to be a concern. I agree that cars should have HUDs with night vision capability. I’d like to see cars that are fully-automatic, but with all of the car enthusiasts that recoil at the idea, I think it would be a better idea for cars of the future to be made with the option of selecting manual, semi-automatic, and fully-automatic modes.

I definitely think that automated driving is in the future, I’m not so sure about no wheels, a HUD would be really nice. free content will never happen, companies would not be able to make money that way. renewable energy will eventually happen, I’m no environmentalist, global warming does not exist, but it will happen. (I would use a product using renewable energy because it would be cheaper)

Hey.

No Wheels? Well, I suppose this is possible, but not anytime in the near future (just in my opinion), although I can really see this happening. I suppose it would work with some sort of levitation… thing. Speeding, or should I say gliding, down highways would be alot easier, swooping past garbage trucks. Heh.

Renewable Energy is the main factor here. The supplies for our cars are going to run out one day, and what will we all do then? It’s at that time people will start to actually think about alternative wars to power cars, but then it’s too late. Electricity is the best option here, and that’s what would, as you said, makt the planet much happier.

Free Content. Internet services in cars would be awesome, especially when wanting to listen to a specific music genre. I agree that paying for things like these is silly. But we have more chance of surviving on the surface of the sun than companies doing things like that for free.

Full Heads-Up Display. I can see this happening in the near future to be honest.

Automatic Driving. This is a nice idea, and it’s one that I’ve been thinking cars should be getting in the past year. While this is a nice idea, I could only imagine what would happen if the driving system malfunctioned.

I always wanted to have a car that could fly like in the movie “The Fifth Element.” If there was a way to prevent crashes in the sky where you would fall really far it would be really cool.

I usually watch your videos from my rss reader but this one I had to go to youtube to find it because the video that is embedded in this post is actually the video for the Retailers vs eTailers post.

“Automated Driving Wouldn’t it be great to punch in where you’re going, then just sit back and relax? Let the car do the actual driving! I can’t wait for that day, personally.”

Yes it would be great and what is even better is that it is already being made by the Kings of Car Technology, Mercedes.

Mercedes was the first manufacturer to add a lot of stuff that is now standard such as Anti-Lock Brakes, Air Bags and even Air Conditioning…

as for the Automated Drive…the proof via the worlds greatest car show, Top Gear.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_Sd4×9VSAw

In my future, personal cars will be a thing of the past.
Say you want to go to a friends house by yourself. You punch in the address at your home on your communication device of choice, enter in number of riders, hit send.
Within seconds, a pod for 1 arrives at your door. You get in and listen to your favorite tunes while you are whooshed away to your destination.
The pod hangs from a rail, controlled by a central computer to control traffic flow.
Say you want to get groceries. You type in what you need, and it arrives at your front door from an automated grocery store. You don’t leave home.
You need to transport your entire family, a pod for five is at your disposal.
Need a couch delivered. It comes to your door in a pod just a little bigger than a couch.
No more highways to upkeep, just a railsystem to hang our electric pods from.
I think my pizza just arrived, from “Podza Hutt”.

Flying cars, interesting concept, but I personally believe, it would be hard to monitor air-traffic
But I did read/see about, is that we could have roads that behave sort of like a maglev of some sort, and automated driving. Of course, what I would love to see, is although the Maglev system idea is awesome, but if you decide to go offroad or off the maglev system, you have wheels flip over so you could drive on the ground.
I also love the concept of internet access in the car.

Realistically?

They’ll look like the ones now, except powered by whatever technology the oil companies release when they’re done having their way with us (and the planet).

-lefty
ThermionicEmissions

how would hologram speedometer in windshield help you see things on the road better

I drive a Lexus RX, and when I first got it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It has voice activated navigation, a back up camera, touch screen navigation, bluetooth integration… its loaded. Now, even though I’m sad to say, my wife now has a 2009 Ford Explorer….. with Microsoft Sync. Just to add this… The sync… a JOKE. Don’t worry about it Apple, they can’t catch up!

How about this;

I feel we could use the current configuration with a few changes to help automate our cruise.

Using the white and yellow lines as well as all the other road objects to discern lanes we could put a metallic or recordable tape under the paint so that a sensor laser from our transport device (TD) could read. We key in a destination and it takes us there.

Using this tape under the paint we could record data which would tell the TD where were are at all times, when to turn when to stop etc. This would keep traffic at a constant speed and would prevent 70% of those dumb traffic accidents.

It’s like mass transportation but for each TD. Now for the die hards who just have to keep both hand on the steering wheel or need that personal control there will be lanes specifically for those with latent characteristics who just can’t let go.

I want my car from back to the future! now!

The best I can come up with is way simpler mechanics. We already have smaller engine blocks, AFI, more efficient braking systems, lighter wheels and so on. I think the improvements will keep coming mostly from that direction, instead of flying cars and other sci-fi stuff.

You know, shorter, lighter pipes, lighter materials, more resistent cockpits in affordable models, more standardized parking systems and auto-rotating mirrors, smart traffic mechanisms, completely adjustable seats, even better fuel-mileage proportions (so petroleum can still be in the game) and so on. Mostly, I mean stuff for general people who can’t buy whatever improvements are out now.

Free radio and TV content seem feasible, but probably not to be done in a near future because of the old property discussions. Renewable energy has serious economic implications, everybody knows that, so it’s still a grey area for me.

Actually, current car prices will probably render cars useless in the future and we’ll have to have other ways to come and go.

I’ve actually spent too much time thinking about this concept. Roads will need to have separate automated and non-automated lanes, automated lanes will need sensors embedded in them so that the cars can run a pre-defined program to get to their destination.

Power will be provided wirelessly (induction?) and the cars will not need their own power supply, except maybe to leave the driveway.

Agreed, that HUDs will become more prevalent and cars will utilize glass cockpits like modern aircraft do.

Ideally the cars would all communicate with each other using a hive-type application.

Personally I can’t wait for the Auto-pilot feature, as it will mean that I am far less dependent on others, and for someone like me, independence is at a premium. It would -finally- be possible for me to own a car, and to go wear I wanted to go without the need to make plans months in advance just to make certain there was someone able to accompany me. But as for what -I- see coming for cars? I am waiting for the onboard computer… not the limited, nonfunctional ones we have now that run the radio or dial your phone.. am I the only one who remembers Knight Rider? Now there was a car! Also, I was watching CSI NY not long ago, and saw something that would be -very- useful. The care was coated in a sort of memory polymer which when subjected to low levels of electric current, snapped back to its original shape… allowing the car to essentially heal itself.

oklahoma city has $3.67/gallon gas

With any luck low to zero carbon emmisions will become the norm in future cars. I think that as the global warming problem becomes more pronounced, we consumers will demand more performance out of less and less carbon until we reach the magical Zero point.

Beyound that I see more and more net convergence into our transportation systems for navigation, information, communication and entertainment (music for the driver, video for passengers…I hope) making transportation better.

In the UK, where i live its

£5 a gallon ($10) for petrol
£5.70 ($11.20) for diesel

and thats not even London. its worse for us lol.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, I believe automobiles with Wi-Fi connectivity will definitely be prevalent. I am not exactly sure what the Wi-Fi would be used for, maybe GPS, but I think the two technologies will fuse together.

I am not sure if fuel milage will improve that much over the next few years. The automobile manufacturers know we want better fuel milage, and it does not appear as if they have done much, which is why I believe American car manufacturing companies are hurting right now.

I think we will evolve past cars. I think still thinking about cars would be limiting out imagination. What if there was a way to dematerialize your body and send it through internet signals to get to a place. That would be expensive but probably more efficient once the technology advanceed

How about no cars at all and just have teleportation, enter in the address or phone number of where you want to go! or even have a Google Map search option. ^_^

‘Automatic Driving’ is just over the horizon. We’ve already got cars equipped with radar accident avoidance detectors, as well as lane change detectors.

As the technology progresses, you’ll see cars ‘talking’ to each other, warning/advising surrounding cars that they’re braking — with cars that need too responding by slowing down and/or warning the driver in some way.

With cars ‘talking and responding’ to each other, the distance between vehicles could be relaxed, so a single lane for ‘automatic driving’ would safely accommodate vehicles closer together and allow more vehicles than is presently accepted as safe.

Distance or destination warnings would be set by the driver before entering the ‘automatic lane’ so he can automatically or manually exit to a ‘manual lane’. Fuel requirements would be anticipated; an on-board computer would estimate fuel needs for the route set and require either fueling to an adequate level or setting in of exits for refueling.

On board computers and communications between cars would mean very precise control. My car constantly in communication with all cars immediately surrounding it, letting them regulate my speed as well as steering.

I see in the future cars traveling on the freeway, all about one car length apart (wow). I even see a car with a mechanical problem up ahead, and all the cars slowing slightly in unison or as necessary, and neatly merging into the lanes on either side of the disabled car to go around it.

No central computer or transponders necessary. Just cars with their computers and self controls constantly communicating and responding to each other. The tow truck responding to the disabled car I mentioned earlier wouldn’t even need warning lights. He’d pull up in front of the disabled car, hook up his tow, and as he pulls the car off to the side approaching cars automatically avoid or go around him.

Ctrl-Alt-Del
(These cars will not be running Windows!)

Having a car driving you where ever you want is cool, asking the vehicle to take me to work, the mall, home with out touching the wheel just sit back and relax and let the car do all the driving, I think GM will launch a self-driving cars sometime in 2008 I think it’s called “Traffic Assist” I think i’m not for sure, I think it was Lexus LS 460L that can parallel park itself using a sonar system, So I think the cars in the future will be driving us on it’s own.

I think the automated driving is closer than people think there have already been successful test on the road. Maybe in the future they will prefect the solar electric/hydrogen hybrid car and they will be mass produced no plugging in and just put a couple of gallons of water in the tank and off you go

hydrogen cars have no emissions all that comes out is water and all yyuo have to put in is water and it can run of a cumbustion engine

Nearly everything he was talking about he wasn’t making sense. He talked about using electricity but if they use fossil fuels to product it then what benefit is that. If they would exclusively produce electricity by solar panels, wind, and water energy then it would be a step forward.

To me, the future of cars has already happened in Europe, most cars/vans there get at least 40mpg, if not more. Not to mention they use Diesel over Petrol (gasoline), and slowly, America I have noticed is adopting this method. A automated car would be good, but it would seriously suck if something pulls out in front of you and the cars computers don’t react and you end up smashed into the other car.

I would love to have a car that drives me to my location. I’ll install the playstation!

Flying cars?! You mean you want to give lil miss “I can’t parallel park so I call daddy to do it for me” a license to FLY?!

Flying cars would just add to the dangers. When a car breaks down it, um, STOPS, when a flying car breaks down it FALLS.

Cars that drive their self? Done. Just have to distribute it.

Now maybe if we could just have Luke’s landspeeder….

$4 in california

pirillo is an idiot hud is most important… funny shit i think it is funny how he didn’t even mention weight reduction what a fucking retard

Yeah, but to make the hydrogen cells it takes MASSIVE amounts of energy which, to make, uses a powerplant running on fossil fuels, so it just defeats the object of it.

I have a great idea for a car that uses superconductors to propell it and superconductors to make it hovver, it will also have no engine, since it is propelled by superconductivity. All i need now is about £100m to start off working on it, anyone wanna offer me it? :P

$2 per litre in england

We have been promised our flying cars for awhile now… where are they? I don’t see us going in this direction anytime soon. Can you imagine the accidents that would come from this given the way drivers drive today? Can you say… sky rage. Anyway, I think there will definitely have to be a drastic change in engine technology to sustain the life of the automobile in the future. I would have to agree that electricity would be the ideal way to go. The Tesla Roadster is one serious machine. I think we are coming to the end of an automobile era as we know it, something has to change or we will deplete the earth… then the earth may do the same to us. Twenty years from now, hmmm, I think there will be things that are developed that we cannot imagine at this point in time… remember, technology first appears as magic. Twenty years ago, would anyone have believed that you could do all the things you can today. Technology develops at such a rapid pace, it’s almost impossible to keep up with what is, and what will be. I believe the impracticality of flying cars is evident, instead I think most of the advances will be done to the roadways… thus allowing cars to transport us in an autopilot manner. I believe this is more logical and would most likely solve many problems that plague our roadways today. Maybe even further down the line there would be some type of electromagnetic roadways that would allow the vehicles to hover slightly above the surface… but everything has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

funny you say “petro-ol” like that… considering thats english and in its own language. how strange it that!

well it would use solar energy and electric enrgy. it would use solar power and maybe charge it at home. and it would drive itself with its onboard computing sytem while you relax. you could choose to drive it yourself or make it drive itself to the destination you want.

..and when automated driving systems come in, people can go back to their main focus – making phone calls.

-lefty
ThermionicEmissions

They had something like the windshield thing on wireds article from the future page. It had everything imaginable on it. The auto pilot would be really nice to have and if hey made it good enough less accidents may happen. Good ideas chris, hopefully we may see some of these in our lifetimes.

I’d like to see hydrogen powered engine, and the hologram dashboard thing. and just more futuristic.

well when gas hits 10$ a gallon, and when we are running out of it. I think maybe hydrogen will become standard. As far as the vehicle goes I think it will drive itself and I hope that microsoft doesnt take over the auto industry, SYNC is scaring us all I think!

Im a big Aviation Enthusiast but I love cars and I LOVE motorsports. I watch races everyweekend. When I was younger i always used to think that future cars would be able to fly. But that wont be seen everyday for quite some time i think. Right now what most people want in future cars is for them to run on Air instead of Fuel lol. I think that future cars will have some great features such as great mileage on fuel, Satelite TV, Built in computers maybe. Theres alot of things.

A little crazy thinking about a future without wheels, starting xq take much much money and time in going over the wheels to wheels NO. To think that now there are vehicles that should not be operated and continue to operate .. I speak of vehicles of the 70 or 60 and yet there are some that work well todabia. Apart .. That would happen with Firestone or Goodge? was found .. I think .. that these multinationals hinder this sort of thing. Just think this would be in Europe or the 1st world .. ACA in Argentina .. more advanced than we are by you and Europe come and go forward 10 years. Unfortunately true.
Besides it is true what they say that they have spent millions on roads in perfect condition xq vehicles but not function. Greetings …

This is a great post Chris. I too am waiting for the future car. I think renewable energy is the most important as gas prices as ridiculous! I would love to see more cars have the same luxury and style as the big name cars today. I love posts like these since I can’t wait for what is to happen in the future!

Thanks for the blog post Chris!

I think the future cars would be made with more concern on safety, energy consumption, ease of use, convenience, environment and, of course, looks.
I love the idea of automated driving. That would solve a lot of concerns about safety and traffic regulation. What do you think? With automated cars, there will be little or no fear of car crashing or of people violating. No more over speeding, illegal parking, and overtaking. Best of all you will be free to do whatever you like while in your car. You could sleep, browse the internet, do your homeworkbe etc.!But personaly I think that would only an option in future cars. There would be situations where manual driving is needed. Who knows? After all, the computer might not work and the only way is to drive your car manualy.
There would also be more hightech safety implements crammed in your car. There would be an airbag for every passenger or maybe something better than airbag. Seat belts or something more effective to be invented would automaticaly secure passengers to thier chair and automatically realease you if needed( like when you want to go off the car). No more hassle or excuses for not wearing them for they take care of themselves.
Energy sources would be much better in our future cars. Now there are such things as solar cars(pretty expensive and not practical enough., electric cars( they work on rechargable battery and need to be charged often), fuel cell cars( remember oxygen and hydrogen used as a source of electricity?) and even hydro powered cars claimed to run using only water as a fuel! Now that is cool if it was only true( I hope). personaly I like the concept presented in the movie “Back to the Future” where the future cars use garbage like banana peels, aluminum cans, and paper to generate energy to propel them.
When I say ease of use, I mean it. Everybody want everything to fit them and not them to fit anything. Maybe future cars would be tailored to make it easy, very easy for us to drive them. You could learn to drive them in a week or less. In the extrreme, you might not need to because the cars could drive themselves.
Convenience, like what you say about free content and full-heads up display. There might even be on dash board map and guide, a door that automaticaly open, and, the best, the car would clean and even repair itself.
Of course as we could see and hear now, everybody suddenly become concerned with the environment. Future cars would follow the trend as anything else does. Future cars will produce little or no exhaust, runs on great energy effeciency, uses little energy to ru and best of all totaly recyclable and maybe even biodegradable.
Not to mention, Future cars not only works great, they also looks great. With body that colors you could change by a few press of the button. Body contour made not only to minimize air resistance but also to please the eyes. You could even put on designs which is available for sale, free to download, or maybe you could costumize. Just put the design code to the on board computer, a little tweaking and there you got a greatly designed exterior. Much like changing the layout of your website(familiar with frienster and MySpace?).
That is all I could think of. I’m sure more of you will be able to think of something even better.

$5:40 for desil
$4:30 for reg

I personally think all cars will talk to each other creating a mesh network of some sort telling traffic, weather, and route info. All cars will be connected to the web.

The cars of the next generation will be fully automated, requiring no drivers license at all. Just tell the car where you want to go, it will located the location through the GPS and automatically calculate how to reach that destination and drive and steer on it’s own.

PEAK OIL will make us find out very fast what the future car will be or won’t be.

I believe that the cars of tomorrow will be less like cars the we know today and more like a doctor’s waiting room. I think that we will no longer do the actaul physical part of driving and cars will be completely be automatic when it comes to everything. When it comes to driving to the location, monitoring traffic and it’s surroundings, and everything else that comes along with travelling in a vehicle. I think luxury and comfort will be at the for front and an individual will be able to get into the car, plug in his/her destination and sit back and relax. Inside the car there will be food, drinks, tvs, radios, massaging chairs, computers, possibly a work surface (depending on the vehicle’s size), and all sorts of other necessities of our lives. I think future cars will look very much like the cars in the movie Minority Report. Well the same sort of concept when it comes to comfort and the idea of the car doing everything for you.

I cant imagine how thousand of ppl flying around the sky.. it will just like everyone bicycle around but now is flying and… r there enought lane on skY? hope ppl woundnt get accident while flying around :P
It looks like The Electricity are more clean and good for then earth, but.. for the Electricity provider factory may produce more pollution…-.-”
what i hope for the CAR in Future should have more safetly protection such as able to sense when there was a high speed car coming by on 360 degree or object near by from far 100-200 meter(guess this need the help of satalite), wake the sleepy driver b4 they got accident. small compact design car more convinient to park around.
But i do suggestion the gorvement to build LRT like in japan so we dont need to drive, just take the train and go much more faster atleast safety. no gas either.
for those who wanna save gas, use bicycle for short distance, good exercise. hehe

$3.79 in Pennsylvania

i think i like flying cars… hehehe… it’s fun to drive flying cars but i would still use cars with wheels because i like drifting… of course you can’t drift a flying car, that’s a joke… but there’s nothing impossible in this world with the help of technology….

$3.85 as of today in Allentown, PA

Cars of the future will be running on electricity (hopefully generated in an environmentally friendly manner), hydrogen, water, or nuclear power. I think they won’t have Internet access because of distractions. States are restricting cell phone use for a reason so I don’t see them integrating the Internet.

today’s “future” cars give us a glimpse of what’s to come. technology evolves. you make something, and others make something even better, or either way. there’s nowhere to go but up.

efficient/renewable energy cars: this has got to be the bottomline cars will be in the future. i’m not gonna tell you why. everyone must’ve known how much gas cost these days. cars in the future will either be hybrid, fuel cell(hydrogen), solar, or something even better.

Free content: i agree with chris. most home appliances nowadays can connect to the internet. gaming consoles, DVRs, fridge, etc. why not cars? eventually getting internet connection is as easy (and legal) as setting up an antenna and surfing the web. yes, eventually the internet will be provided OTA free to the public. i don’t know when, but it WILL happen.

self driving cars: possible, but not in this century.

Navigation and driving aid: not only will it come with GPS as a standard, it will have radar based driving aid. mercedes benz is currently working on a radar based blind spot assist: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/09/28/mercedes-benz-adds-radar-based-blind-spot-assist/

$4.79 in West LA

I really hope that either hydrogen powered cars or good electric cars are made available to the public at reasonable prices soon. Then we would no longer need to worry about high gas prices and our environment would be in a much better condition.

€1.39 a liter x 4 =€5.6 a gallon =$8.68 here in ireland and you guys call us lucky??

I think the cars of tomorrow will be, of course more fuel efficient. The cars are going to have a lot more technology to them like night vision when you look through the windshield. They might have live traffic on a screen on the dash, a see through TV screen on the passenger side windshield. I think satellite TV is going to be put into cars for the long car rides of entertainment. Maybe some driving system that warns you of hazards coming up on the road. The cars of tomorrow are going to be awesome and much more entertaining.

£1.15 a liter in the UK (x5 = £5.75 per gallon) . . . .HELLO – ABOUT $10 per gallon in the UK!

What about the cars that run on compressed air they get up to 64 miles an hour and like 136 miles on a tank

If people ever evolve into a species that doesn’t want to destroy their planet the cars of the future will probably be public transportation. Instead of 100 people going the same direction with nothing but themselves in a car. Have you ever driven through Atlanta and seen how many people use the carpool lane? None!

buy a honda or toyota you losers.

Great post Chris. I too am waiting for the future car. I think renewable energy is the most important as gas prices as ridiculous! I would love to see more cars have the same luxury and style as the big name cars today.

Tomorrows car will be a bike

Peak Oil is a lie. There is plenty of Oil in Alaska. Check the Non Energy Crisis video by Lindsay Williams.

Wow, I don’t think I’ll be complaining about gas prices anymore. It’s like $3.90 here.

they made a car that runs on compressed air

I personally think that public transportation services should install monorails through out many of the major cities. There should also be similar monorails following virtually every bus route. A fixed track system (elevated off the ground of course) would greatly reduce inner city gas usage that does nothing more than waist our planet’s valuable resources.

Burning Hydrogen only produces water, so i think that’s one way to go. As far as energy production goes, i think Nuclear power is definately the best, even better if Fusion is stabilised.
I think that it’s a bit stupid to complain abot petrol prices. Get over it, the risen price is there to help slow the use of oil and destruction of the atmosphere.

Considering the direction that this world is headed (economic collapse) the future of cars might actually lean more towards the human-powered variety.

Bikes and mopeds just might be the future of human propulsion; rather than more inefficient means of transportation. Some might see this as a step back, but I honestly see it as a giant leap forward if this were to ever happen in the future.

That is unless the oil companies allow free energy to surface, which is highly unlikely.

I was watching a film yesterday, “The Eleventh Hour” which really made me think about this, and the problems it may create. Because of the raising fuel prices I personally don’t think that the conventional car will not be around for much longer, by conventional I mean gas cars; people just won’t be able to afford to run a car. Also the oil reserves are apparently running out, and if this is true then despite the raise in price of fuel, how can there be a future for the gas car? If you think of the amount our societies rely on cars, if one day cars weren’t there then the world would grind to a halt. Because of this there will have to be an alternative, I guess the most obvious would be the electric car, which becomes more powerful and efficient by the year. But of course this electric is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, so then we need an alternative for generating power; which is in itself a whole other problem. So perhaps the future of cars is the hydrogen car, who knows; one thing for sure it’s going to be a shaky future for cars.

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Hydrogen fuel cells are where the money is at. As for flying, imagine a fender bender at 20,000feet in the air.

here in the uk it is £1.12.9 per LITRE!!!!

double that for dollars and god knows how much it is for a gallon. – 28/05/2008

and this area is cheap

I’m thinking cars of tomorrow will be in the air. I have had plans for building a flying car since I was 5! I cannot wait until I take an engineering class at college and I can actually invent something great!

I would rather explore the option of no cars in the future. If it is granted that no spectacular innovation occur in the industry which make the current transportation model viable it may be that society may look outside the box and see other modes of transportation more appealing. I sometimes wonder why we think that roads and cars are the best means of getting from A to B. I feel that it has a lot to do with independence, the freedom to just get up and go on a whim to a destination miles away. It may be that this is the best expression of human nature but many see downsides to individuals driving. If we continue to view transportation as a person in metal box we may be overlooking better solutions; however, it may be that the best we can do is what we are doing now.

Honestly, in my lifetime, say the next 50 years, I don’t think that much will change. Granted, gas prices are high, but people thought a dollar was high way back when. If anything, I say that they’ll develop engines to make it more fuel efficient, but that’s it I think. I may be wrong, but I won’t know until 50 years down the road.

Obviously, we will have to find some kind of alternate energy source, as the world’s oil sources will eventually dry up. Hydrogen is looking promising at the moment, but ethanol could be a possibility as well.

As for flying cars, a lot of things would have to change to make them both affordable and practical. While this may not happen anytime soon, you never know what the future may hold.

I hope that cars will become a lot more like computers. We already use them to travel most every day and if we could use them as a hub for our news and media, it could quite possibly do use a lot of good. Cars running on water would be cool too.

I think the cars will be like in the Star Wars 3, you know? in the city. Okei it might be over aggravated but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible it’s unbelievable how technology is advancing and i’m sure in 25 years we will have plane type cars and then more into future we have floating cars. Trust me :D

Running a car on electricity would not fix all the problems. Most of the energy is genreated by burning coal, which is non-renewable. If we got rid of coal, almost any form of creating electricity has its problems still. Gasoline creates emissions. Solar panels are too expensive to make. Hydroelectric power dams up rivers. Windmills can break very easily. There is no perfect solution to the energy problem.

Hmm, I guess with all these long comments, I should make mine short yet sweet to even it all out.
1. Alternative energy – Don’t know what kind, my cousin and I were talking about perpetual motion, but how would it start off?
2. Hovercraft – It’s possible, in fact, this summer my cousin and I will build one out of a leafblower, tarp, and a round slab of wood.
3. Integrated Idea-Thinker-Upper – Useful for coming up with the features of the future car.

Yup, that’s all I can think of for now.

I would have to vote first and foremost on the renewable energy point. This is becoming a very important topic to many consumers in the U.S. and that will only increase as gas prices continue to rise.

Buy a 07 Toyota Prius it gets 61 MPG

2010 Chevy Volt

hi chris, for the amount of gas being paid as you mentioned, they should have this…….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR7tOPLtQuo

Head Up Display already exists in the new Citroen C 6.
Not really automated driving, but automated parking is available in the new BMWs. Not just showing trajectory and guidance – just select the parking position, push the button, sit back – and the car will park itself. Cool, eh.

In 20 years will be no more gas for the cars,or it will so expensive like gold.So,definetly the new cars will run with another type of fuel which is in enough quantity for entire planet.

I’m still waiting on the flying cars promised to be here by 2000. but in 20 years I assume most of it will be small fuel effective cars, that use a mix of fuels or electric

I think tomorows cars will be

flying in air
no need of gasoline or petrol or whatever
produce less pollution
no wheels
can have the ability to fly even in space
run completely on solar energy even in the night they should store all the energy in morning and fly in the night

I think they need to think of a source that makes the most of WASTE. There has to be some way to be able to run a vehicle that uses wastes from fuel as a fuel. I still think there will be cars with wheels, but I also think there will be another “tier of traffic” above for flying types of vehicles.

i hope in the future cars drive themselves and they fly that way we would never have to worry about accidents again, it would be much safer and a lot more fun.

I have a feeling cars will retain their wheels, but will run on alternative fuels that will never be scarce. They will also be pretty much able to drive themselves. I also believe that they entertainment will increase in vehicles which will include better sound and video systems.

I think that the energy source is the most important. With gas prices it will be extremely important that there be cheep and readily available options. I can hardly wait until I get my first electric, hydrogen, or other natural power source!

I reckon that the movie iRobot has got the idea for futuristic cars fairly accurate. Instead of having wheels they had Spherical wheels. I guess in a sense then this ties in with the Blog about how Sci-Fi may influence real life inventions and creations. Certainly having Spherical wheels would solve a lot of the current issues facing cars. For example parking, having spherical wheels would allow for fast and efficient parallel parking.
Also, from what has already been developed, I see cars having intelligent vision being much more likely. Being able to identity roads, curbs, people etc will definitely become a side spread feature to years to come. But how much trust can be placed in these computers? If someone died because the car did an emergency stop, but one of the occupants wasn’t wearing a safety belt, could the car be to fault?

mines a little over 4 dollars here in long island ny

about 3.29 around here in alabama!

it would tell u how horny ur mom iz

I think cars should be self driving and have internet connections in the car.

Have you seen some of the videos for UMPC on youtube. There are a few I think very interesting. Do you think computers will become more voice recognition then type input or what do you think will be the new advancement?