Future Files by Richard Watson

Author:Richard Watson [Richard Watson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published: 2011-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Reinventing the wheel

From a technological perspective, the car you drive today is very far removed from the small and light vehicle you might have access to 40 or 50 years hence. The shape will be slightly familiar, although the materials the car will be made of will be as foreign to most people as a Lexus would have appeared to someone in the 1880s. First of all, most of the panels will be constructed from biodegradable plastic made from the starch found in potatoes and rice. (When you’ve finished with them, you could theoretically bury them in your garden to rot down into garden compost.) The panels will also be made using nanotechnology, meaning they will remember the shape they are supposed to be, so dents will fix themselves. The color will no longer be sprayed on in a separate and time-consuming batch process, but will be programmable by the owner, much in the same way that an iPod operates. In other words, you will be able to set the color of your car to change each week depending on your mood. The “paint” will be self-repairing, in that if it gets scratched or chipped the color will simply flow over the damaged area, making it look as good as new, and the exterior will wash and dry itself every time it rains.

There will be a safety override, so that if the weather turns nasty or there is an accident up ahead the car will sense this and automatically change itself from, say, silver to a safer, more visible color like white or yellow. Things will be pretty colorful on the inside, too. Given the amount of effort that automakers have traditionally put into color forecasting, it’s surprising that the interior lighting of automobiles and other vehicles has received so little attention. Or perhaps not. Most people spend a lot of time and money discussing what color to paint the inside of their house but give virtually no thought to the lighting. In the future, cars’ interior lighting will be fully programmable and, again, will automatically adjust according to the conditions inside and outside.

This means that if you select the sport gearbox option in a luxury saloon, the interior and exterior lighting may change to a safer and more visible intensity, but the car will override these selections if it feels you are a threat to other road users. In the future vehicles (and other machines, for that matter) will be mood sensitive and will adjust themselves to their owner’s feelings. For example, if traffic conditions deteriorate (or you receive a phone call that makes you anxious or stressful) the vehicle will compensate with relaxing dashboard instrumentation, anti-stress lighting and chillout sounds. Either that or a spy in the sky will somehow recognize that you are a danger to yourself and other road users and you will receive a message through your radio stating: “Your speed has been reduced for your own safety. Thank you for your cooperation.”

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