Sydney 13 June 2015. With such a staggering number of cars of different ages swarming our roads and highways, the prospect of futurism in car making can often be hard to imagine in the mind's eye. Today though, there are all manner of amazing, future-thinking, ground-shaking developments occurring within the automotive world that all point towards an utterly interesting future for the humble motor car. Awesome designs, fast-moving technology and concepts that look set to completely change the face of the auto industry; here they are!
Self-Driving Cars
With Google, Apple and a partnership between China's Baidu and Germany's BMW all currently researching the prospect of fully autonomous, self-driving cars, it's looking pretty likely that these robo-mobiles will be a sight on our roads within a time span of years, not decades. Passengers will be able to specify their destination and simply relax, working, watching a film or even being able to play Euro casino games at providers such as Euro Palace. Let's just hope that the on-board computers and gizmos are less risky than the slots or poker being played within!
Organic Design
Being able to 'grow' a car is a rather outlandish concept, but that's just what Mercedes and Honda are doing with their Biome and Air concept vehicles. The Biome, among a host of other futuristic features, will host a bio-fibre cloth body produced by organically, genetically-modified trees; Air will have components produced using vegetable-based materials, both of these rather outlandish features being utilised in the name of environmentalism and weight-saving.
Car-Stopping Airbags
If you've been unlucky enough to have an airbag deployed in your face, you'll likely be aware of the wonderful life saving properties of these dusty white pillows, but soon we could be affixing airbags to the exteriors of cars themselves, slowing and stopping them during a crash. The bags, in development by Mercedes, would lift the car up eight centimetres and be covered in a high-friction coating, boosting the car's dipping motion and improving bumper to bumper contact.
Turbine-Electric Cars
The Jaguar C-X75 concept supercar is a beautiful piece of automotive artistry, but the design also features a revolutionary propulsion system too. In each wheel is an electric motor, all four drawing power from a large lithium-ion battery pack. The battery, unlike most electric or hybrid designs, is then powered by twin gas turbines that can pump out a huge amount of power. The only hurdle for Jaguar to overcome now is the question of how all of the heat from the turbines will be dissipated. Let's hope they can sort it out; soon all supercars could be powered by this environmentally-friendly concept.
Image Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/3949834600
