Cars In The Future : Summary
Vehicles are changing
The motor industry has a long heritage of innovation, and this has shaped and influenced the way that vehicles are designed over the last 100 years. This commitment to resource innovation has never been more vital than today as there are areas of change that the automotive industry must address if private vehicle use is to be a sustainable method of transport in the future.
The two key areas upon which there is the urgent need to focus are to reduce significantly the environmental impact of transport, and to improve the safety which vehicles offer road users both inside and outside of the vehicle. These changes are fundamental to improving the quality of life of the world population, not just in the short term, but in the longer term also.
It is important to note that these changes will require commitments by those other than the automotive industry itself. There will be the requirement to change infrastructures, and the way that we as road users interact with the vehicle and the infrastructure. Reducing the environmental damage of vehicles and improving the safety of the roads is also the responsibility of anyone reading this policy document.
Environmentally, innovation will come from work to reduce damaging emissions in the short term, coupled with the sourcing and effective implementation of more modern, and less polluting fuels that will provide the basis for future vehicle power sources. Steps to improve the efficiency of vehicles and the transport network will also help to reduce the amount of energy that is wasted.
The general trend in the Westernised world has been a decrease in road casualties, although the impact that road deaths and injuries have on society is still too great. The car still has much to offer in order to reduce this impact. Furthermore, safety is an important area the developing world, and road traffic injury will be the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease in 2020 .
The safety of vehicles is of particular importance to road safety in the future. Technology is becoming available on vehicles that allow a much greater level of vehicle automation to take place, and the vehicle will start to use this information to see for itself. The steps towards automation of vehicles are intended to reduce the instances of driver error, which is a contributory factor in at least 9 out of every 10 road accidents.
These changes will also mean a much greater interaction between the driver, the road environment, the vehicle, and other vehicles using the transport system.
The vehicle itself will monitor the road around it, accurately making the many observations that are solely the responsibility of the driver at the moment.
Technological monitoring of the journey and hazards can be done more accurately and with less error, and a programmed vehicle may also be able to process and respond to the information in a better way than a human.
Technology will support a driver in different ways and at different times depending on the vehicle or circumstances, and there are many potential interventions to prevent an accident that can be implemented up until the point at which the accident occurs.
The car driver of the future will play a very different role to the driver of today.
Of course, as the vehicle changes around the driver, there is also a need for drivers to ensure that they can control the vehicle safely. As technology changes, driver training is necessary to ensure that not only the basic driver skills are kept up to date, but also that the new skills which drivers will need to monitor and control varying levels of automation are developed.
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