While cars with GPS, satellite radio, sunroofs, automatic gear transmission, cruise control, automatic climate control and other novelties are the norm these days, there’s a ton of innovation and new gadgets and technologies coming soon. If you’ve been thinking that airbags qualify as innovation, wait till you hear from the future makers of the automobile industry. Many have the potential to change the way we drive and are practical enough to see the light of the day outside the laboratory.

Cars that talk to each other on the road

Vehicle to vehicle communication, that’s V2V, uses wireless signals to establish superfast communication links between moving vehicles. So, you think the idea is preposterous? Well, engineers at MIT have been testing out advanced algorithms that work by making vehicles communicate information about their paths, speeds and next turns, so that all vehicles communicating via V2V technologies can plan to keep a safe distance from nearby vehicles. Do you think this won’t work in the real scenario? How about the fact that a report published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that successful V2V could cut down road crashes between vehicles by almost 80 percent! Imagine your vehicle applying brakes on its own by predicting that a red light defaulter from the intersecting lane will ram into your car! Saving all those insurance costs looks so easy with cars that communicate!

Self-driving cars that actually go the distance

Whereas Hollywood movies would have you believe that self-driving cars are a thing of the past, the truth is that the novel concept is practically limited to the laboratories at this instant. Nevertheless, testing is in full swing, and it’s none other than the almighty Google doing the honors along with manufacturers like Nissan. Engineers from Google have successfully tested self-driving cars across 200,000 miles in Nevada and California. These cars record images from the road, read and understand traffic signals, analyze computerized dynamic maps to plan routes according to traffic and distance, and even detect traffic lights before they’re seen by human drivers. Very soon, and assuming that federal governments will find out answers to their massive questions about the safety implications of these cars, you could have these futuristic cars managing their way on the roads!

Augmented reality in front of your eyes

How about being shown the way to a destination with arrows that appear on your car’s windshield? What’s more, how about being shown information about objects in front of your car, the proper lane you should be driving in, speed of the approaching car, and what not! BMW has already implemented a windshield display, and very soon, you could have augmented reality in front of your eyes as you drive your way ahead.