Without diving into the topic of self-driving cars – our vehicles are becoming more and more technologically advanced. Go back 50 years and most cars didn’t even have seat belts. And now we have cars equipped with intelligent park assist. Even your average car comes with a whole host of tech that we now take for granted, and it’s only getting more advanced and more wide spread. Here are some of the newer technological advances that are now mass produced and expected in all new models of car.
Rear Reversing Camera
This rear mounted camera has developed beyond a beeping sensor and can now show you a 180 degree view of what’s behind you, with parking guides to help you get into that spot perfectly straight. The Nissan Juke N-Connecta 2017 shows the standard use of this sort of camera. However a reversing camera is no substitute for using your mirrors, and can be blurred easily in the rain.
All Terrain Driving
Automatic sensors that change the way you drive depending on the terrain you’re driving on. Discover more about 4MATIC which is Mercedes’ answer to this terrain driving. This addition to your vehicle works alongside your anti-locking brakes and electronic stability system, to manage the suspension and speed-level of your car, allowing you to switch from tarmac to off-road seamlessly.
Car WIFI
In this day and age, who doesn’t want to have a permanent wifi hotspot? The Audi Connect is one of the cars that offer this feature, with the rest of the Audi range in line for the same treatment. Most of the leading car manufacturers have had this in the works since as early as 2010, but it’s only become a common feature in recent years.
GPS Tracking
Where any car installed with a built in sat-nav can be tracked, it’s only become a common feature to allow the car owner to use a GPS tracker as an app that accompanies your car. It can be incredibly handy if your car gets stolen, to check on its location when you’re out of the country, and even track where your kids have driven to in your car.
Parental Control
Which leads us on to our next point. Parental control goes further than child lock on the doors. You can now remotely control your children’s speed and even their music levels whenever they borrow your car. Ford’s MyKey application is being offered as an additional extra on a handful of their models, with plans to expand. It could be an extremely useful thing to have installed in the car of your child when they have just passed their test.
Night Vision
Although Cadillac offered night vision back in 2000, Mercedes upgraded their Night Vision Assist to Night Vision Assist Plus – imaginative name. The newer system pinpoints the positions of pedestrians and shows them on the dashboard display. BMW does have a similar system in place.