Top 10 car technologies you’ll see in the next decade

While flying cars are still the realm of Jetsons cartoons, the car of the future is just around the corner and will feature a range of new technologies to make driving safer, simpler and more efficient.

Don’t just think self-driving cars, because these cars will be able to do a lot more than just drive for you, as demonstrated by Audi's most recent connectivity workshop, where the German car-maker showed a number of new technologies that will one day allow cars to think for us, although not all of them will be initially available in Australia.

Here are 10 things that you’re likely to see on mainstream cars within the next decade.

Personal Assistant
Before you even leave the house your car will be monitoring traffic and weather conditions and will let you know if you need to plan to leave earlier.

Pre-heat/pre-cool
Already a feature on some electric cars, your car will heat or cool itself from the grid before you’re ready to leave, ensuring there’s plenty of charge in the vehicle battery. You’ll be able to engage the function from an app on your phone without the tedium of having to go into the garage yourself to switch it on.

Personal Route Assist
Currently available on vehicles including the Audi Q7, A4 and A5, your car’s navigation system will learn your preferred route to frequent destinations and will make suggestions for the next trip, choosing from the three most likely destinations and picking the optimum route to avoid traffic.

Parking Monitor
Your car learns where you prefer to park, and once your destination is confirmed, it will calculate the probability that you’ll find a park in your favourite area.

Auto parking
Once you’re arrive at your destination, your car will drive itself to an available car parking place and message you on your smartphone to let you know its location.

Road Sign & Object Recognition
As car manufacturers prepare for the introduction of fully autonomous cars, they’re teaching cars to be able to read and recognise road signs so they can react accordingly.

Cars will recognise speed limits and signs so that they will be able to drive themselves. In semi-autonomous modes, ie where the driver is still doing the actual driving, the car will be able to take evasive action if it senses no braking when approaching a stop sign.

Car-to-car communication
Cars will be equipped with multiple sensors to monitor thousands of points of data which are shared to the cloud and, in turn, passed to vehicles in close proximity. This might include information on upcoming road works, weather conditions, free car parks and changed speed limits.

Traffic Jam Assist
While traffic jam assist already exists on some vehicles, allowing the car to manage its own acceleration and braking within slow moving traffic, the next generation of car-to-car communication will see cars manage themselves in convoy.

They’ll use existing technologies such as adaptive cruise control and the data they’ve gathered from other vehicles to determine the optimum driving speed and distance to travel together in a pack on motorways in the most efficient way.

Accident alert
In the event that you are involved in an accident, your vehicle will alert emergency assistance teams and advise of your location. While this is a feature on a few cars already in Australia, the technology will extend to your car also advising other vehicles in close proximity that it is causing a hazard, allowing them to change course and avoid the situation.

Driving Style Assistant
Your car will learn your driving style and will be able to set its driver assistance technologies to offset your style. If it senses you have a tendency to travel close to vehicles in front of you, it may prime its autonomous emergency braking system earlier, to avoid risk of potential collisions.