Introduction to 2025

The following informational posts are based on the research information on “The Future of Cars in 2025”. These posts are based on expert opinions and rumours, while incorporating our own thoughts and predictions.

It is extremely hard to predict the outcome of how the automotive industry will look in 2025, but reading these posts, you can get a general understanding of some concepts of what to expect when the time comes.

We hope you will find these posts informative while intriguing, as every one of these predictions could come true. After all, the future is NOW.

Terms/Definitions

The following is a list of terms we needed to become familiar with before starting our research for our project.

Center Console: refers to the control-bearing surfaces in the center of the front of the vehicle interior (Wikipedia, 2014)

Dashboard Design: A panel under the windshield of a vehicle, containing indicator dials, compartments, and sometimes control instruments. (TheFreeDictionary, 2013)

Fuel-cell Technology: Hydrogen with oxygen in the air to generate electricity (Taylor, 2014).

Magnetic Propulsion (For Vehicles): The principle of accelerating a vehicle by the utilization of a flowing electrical current and magnetic fields. (TheFreeDictionary, 2013).

Self-Driven Car: A robotic vehicle that is designed to travel between destinations without a human operator. To qualify as fully autonomous, a vehicle must be able to navigate without human intervention to a predetermined destination over roads that have not been adapted for its use. (WhatIs, 2013)

Solar Energy: The energy the earth receives from the sun, primarily as a visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation (Dictionary.com, 2014).

Vehicle to Vehicle communication: for Safety is the dynamic wireless exchange of data between nearby vehicles that offers the opportunity for significant safety improvements (RITA, 2014)

Fuel-Cell Cars in 2025

Fuel-cell cars will be commercially available by 2025. Fuel-cell technology combines hydrogen with oxygen in the air to generate electricity. “The only emissions are water vapor and heat” (Taylor, 2014). Fuel-cell technology is becoming more inexpensive, and will be commercially practical for mass use in cars by 2025 (Taylor, 2014). Daimler, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Toyota, Honda and General Motors are all developing fuel-cell vehicles. “Toyota and Honda plan to start selling fuel-cell vehicles next year 2015” (Taylor, 2014). Fuel-cell cars have been failing to gain widespread acceptance because of prohibitive development costs, even though they can run five times longer than electric cars and take far less time to refuel (Taylor, 2014). Though, they are not to be forgotten. They’re a viable alternative to zero-emissions vehicle technologies (Taylor, 2014). “By 2025 fuel cell production will be more industrialized and the costs will decrease, thanks to greater economies of scale” (Taylor, 2014). Fuel-cell cars are expected to be priced at $70,000. Although that is a premium price for a vehicle, the other factor to consider is the amount you will save on not having to buying fuel for your vehicle. These vehicles are also tremendously great for the environment.

The video below is a short summary of my findings.

How The Future of Cars in 2025 Will Be Projected

The way all motor vehicles are presented in today’s society are dependant on the driver’s skills to take control of the vehicle. However, in the future 10 years, acccording to Albanesius, “semi-autonomous vehicles will likely be on the road before 2025, while fully self-driving cars should be shuttling people around by 2035. The firm predicted that the number of self-driving cars will jump from about 230,000 in 2025 to 11.8 million in 2035 – 7 million with driver controls and 4.8 million fully autonomous vehicles” (Albanesius, 2014).

Of course with the innovation of self driving cars projected in 2025, the sticker price will increase dramatically. “By 2025, self-driving tech will likely add between $7,000 and $10,000 to a car’s sticker price” (Albanesius, 2014).

In regards to parking assistance, many vehicles already have this built in their features. However, according to Alic, “In its parking assistance, Audi is working to be able not only to alert a driver to available parking spots in congested urban areas, but also to add a Big Brother element that would let a driver know when someone else’s parking meter has expired so they can have the car ticketed, all in 2025” (Alic, 2013).

These self driving cars will allow drivers to avoid any human errors that can result in accidents, making the roads more safe and keeping insurance rates down. What is left to be decided is whether or not insurance rates will still be higher because of the fact that there will be a smaller chance of a driver getting into an accident.

Here is a a video I found explaining more into detail about Self Driving Cars.

http://www.wsj.com/video/self-driving-cars-may-be-mainstream-by-2025/56EA2BA2-8F24-4E26-86BF-4413567EED1C.html

2025 is Quickly Approaching

We all know that Audi makes extraordinary luxury vehicles. This video, while it has no talking, shows a visual of some of the features Audi is in the process of making to prepare for 2025.

Magnetic Propulsion in Cars in 2025

Many people are unfamiliar with this term, and honestly before researching I was too. According to Ecofriend, “electromagnetic induction is the next exciting idea in 2025 of obtaining a clean, green and powerful propulsion for our vehicles” (Ecofriend, 2011). This will allow vehicles to be active in transportation in terms of underground, railways, and even on water, while being beneficial to the environment because the magnetic fields in which will be underneath the wheels will allow for less gas and pollution.

Magnetic propulsion, otherwise known as magnetic levitation (maglev) is based on the prediction that the wheels of vehicles will be replaced with magnets, for the ultimate transportation.

This picture gives a visual understanding of just how the magnetic propulsion will become successful in cars in 2025.

So what do we think about magnetic propulsion in vehicles? Other than being beneficial to the environment and being creative, you may ask yourself how else this could be meaningful to society? Keep in mind that all innovation happens for a reason, and not just because scientists and inventors are “bored”. The fact that we could see vehicles on water, cutting down gas costs, and being beneficial to the environment will have a positive feedback from all consumers.

Dashboard Designs of 2025 in Automobiles

We can all agree that technology is shaping the way the world is being ran today. But when it comes to features in vehicles, it is a little different. In terms of the dashboards of vehicles in society today, we are experiencing mild changes such as more LED lighting and overall a more attractive layout than in the early 2000s. But by the time 2025 comes around, according to Barry, “your dashboard may soon become as versatile as your laptop” (Barry, 2010).

In 2025, it will be almost impossible to find a new car that is NOT connected to the internet. Researchers are predicting that all modern vehicles will have WiFi built into the dashboard where the drivers and passengers can access. Now the more important question becomes a reality; is that really a good change? With the amount of people who text and drive today, adding WiFi to mainly all vehicles will likely cause the accident and insurance rates to skyrocket. Barry also states that “social media just might become built in dashboard designs” (Barry, 2010). Now this topic will create never ending controversial discussions. Going back to the modules in class, we notice that social media is becoming more and more addicting worldwide. Drivers in 2025 will have the luxury of checking their news feeds with the touch of finger as soon as a red light comes; and probably while the vehicle is in motion.

Another study has shown that according to Golson, “Apple’s CarPlay will drive the future of car dashboards” (Golson, 2014). Rumour has it that Apple is trying to manufacture iOS into vehicle dashboards for the ultimate experience. Of course I don’t predict this feature to be pre built into your ordinary common vehicles, but rather the uncommon, more expensive ones. But then again, we all know from past experience that it is impossible to predict the future. However, if you were to combine built in WiFi with built in iOS, I’m sure you know the result that would occur. Drivers and passengers would have the access to in other words having an iPhone with unlimited data inside a vehicle.

This also raises another discussion in terms of gas companies and prices. I personally predict that if this was to occur in 2025 than gas prices would go up quite a bit as there would be more and more vehicles on the road and more gas usage as a result of the free WiFi and iOS. This could become unfair for the middle to lower class because gas prices right now are already too high.

Overall I would say that although this sparks a lot of interest to avid vehicle users and owners, the result would be a lot of controversy as everything would increase in terms of the price tag of vehicles, insurance rates, and gas prices. It is something interesting to look forward to in the near future but for now, for society’s sake, I hope technology for once doesn’t play a big role in dashboard designs.

The following video explains the concept of the 2025 Mercedes commercial truck interior. While it is not solely based on the dashboard design only, it shows how it will look in some cases which I think are pretty cool!

http://videos.venturebeat.com/mercedes-benz-future-truck-2025-interior-design-518430146

Flying Police Patrol Cars in 2025

There is a bright future for police patrol cars in 2025. The criteria needed to fit for a police patrol car in the year 2025 is advanced technology; speed and agility; creativity of the solution; meeting a specific regions emission standards and environmental stability including maintenance and recyclability. BMW has come up with a car that fits all of the criteria above. The cherry on top of the cake is that it also flies. BMW has looked into the future and added complexity for a vehicle fit for law enforcement. “DesignworksUSA`s role as a think tank is to challenge the status quo of existing product solutions. We wanted to present a visionary impulse to the theme of highway patrol. Hence our contribution to the L.A. Design Challenge is a vision concept with no links to BMW´s future design strategy. We took the liberty to think out of the box. To emphasize the conceptual approach our design is independent from BMW design elements and known visual cues but looks at new product typologies and fresh ideas on shapes” (Schaffer, 2012).

“The BMW Group Designworks USA was aware that there would be more traffic, faster vehicles, and vehicles with alternative drive trains in 2025. The design team explored how a patrol team functioned today and in the future and determined that teamwork and accessibility were the two key elements for a successful patrol effort” (Schaffer, 2012). “For teamwork the design team was inspired by the partnership between a patrol officer and their canine” (Schaffer, 2012). “The clogged highways today and in the future inspired the design team to focus on a solution to increase accessibility” (Schaffer, 2012).

The design of the ePatrol Vision centers on a modular structure and drone technology that enhanced both teamwork and accessibility. The main structure can deploy three drones. The top drone sits above the main structure and is a flying drone, while the other two are one wheel vehicles attached to the rear. In the case of a pursuit during heavy traffic areas, the patrol officer sitting in the two passenger main structure can deploy either the flying drone or one of the single wheel drones to chase the suspect and report back data to the main structure. When all drones are deployed, the main structure can continue to function. All drones have added protection benefits in that they can send an impulse to another vehicle and disable it. “Throughout the exterior design, the team strived to create a powerful stance with an aerodynamic aesthetic and flowing lines” (Schaffer, 2012).

The interior design was inspired by a woven structure made of aluminum wire inside carbon fiber and polymer resin. The seats for a significant connection between driver and architecture. For greater protection to the patrol officers, windows are not included in the vehicle. The windshield is replaced with a large screen that on the exterior can communicate critical information such as accidents or route information to other drivers. “On the interior, the large screen acts as a monitor on which data from the drones can be displayed” (Schaffer, 2012).

As you can see, the traditional police patrol car will be fully changed. No more windows, the interior will be different, the seating inside the car will be changed. There will be a huge monitor that people will be able to read from, as well. All of this is coming from technology. From my point of view, it’s so cool to see how much technology can do and what the opportunities are. Cars won’t look the same at all. The best part of it is that these changes will create better protection for drivers.

There are some images of what the future car will look like. You can see the inside dashboard and how the police will be able to track peoples license plates and etc.

(Boldride, 2012)

(Boldride, 2012)

(Boldride, 2012)

(Boldride, 2012)

Future of Electric Solar Power Cars

“By 2025, solar power will be the world’s largest single source of energy” (Clendaniel, 2014). This means that cars will run on solar power, as well. Fully electric vehicles have already started to gain momentum and market share. Tesla Motors is the first company to invent a fully electric vehicle, though Tesla’s models currently run on batteries. The future of 2025, electric cars will run on solar power, so there will be no need for charging your electric car that runs on batteries. Solar thermal and solar photovoltaic energy from new dye-sensitized and thin-film materials will heat buildings, water, and provide energy for devices in the home and office, as well as in retail buildings and manufacturing facilities by 2025 (Clendaniel, 2014). This will shape the future and how the world uses technology.

For those of you who want to know how solar power energy works or are just intrigued here is a video I found on Youtube explaining it all in 3 minutes. Side note: This video doesn’t not explain how it will run in cars. (Sorry!)

(Jones, 2012)

Safety in Cars

Safety has been an issue for many years. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “1% of drivers involved in the collisions applied the brakes at full force before the collision. About 33% of the drivers in the crashes NHTSA analyzed didn’t apply the brakes at all” (White, 2013). Looking at these numbers, you can understand that human’s make many mistakes, 20%-30% of accidents are due to drivers being distracted (CAA, 2014).  There are many things that can distract people:

• Cellphones                                   Driving when drowsy
• Children                                        Day dreaming
• Additional Passengers               Watching Roadside Diversions
• Eating and Drinking                    Applying makeup/ grooming

Currently in 2014 car tech has evolved to help us with assistance such as lane assist, rear view cameras and blind spot assist, but they are not at the level of cutting down collision percentages yet. However in 2025 with the help of internet connectivity vehicle to vehicle communication can help eliminate these errors. “Cars can travel in closer proximity at higher speeds, and automatically reroute to avoid hazardous weather conditions or congested highways” (Phneah, 2013).

Safety is a big concern, even for the future. We understand that humans can be distracted easily but in the year 2025 we can eliminate this and potentially save many lives. Below you will find a list of common distractions for drivers with real life statistics in North America.

(CAA,2014)