The Kiplinger Letter (July 13, 2012) had the following to say about the future of automotive technology:
******************************************* As automotive technology races ahead. The impact will ripple through the economy. Advances will build on steps already taken: Onboard electronic sensors enabling cars on the road now to parallel park, jam on the brakes if traffic suddenly halts and warn of lane-straying. Within a few years, such features will be widespread and will perform increasingly sophisticated functions. monitoring driver alertness, routing trips and more. Then.a critical communications leap: Onboard wireless transmitters that allow vehicles to relay their speed and locations to one another. By 2020, all new cars will have the technology. Odds are that Uncle Sam will require at least some of it as a safety measure, much as seat belts are now. Self-driving autos won't be far behind, taking full advantage of car-to-car communications and electronic controls. Drivers will still be able to pilot themselves, but most folks will trust the car. That will trim travel times for road warriors of all sorts.commuters, truckers, delivery drivers, etc. Employers will benefit, too: Heavy traffic wastes countless man-hours.in L.A., for example, 56 per worker a year. The combination of autonomous cars and wireless traffic management systems will route traffic more efficiently through congested urban areas and bottlenecks. As a result.better fuel efficiency and less need to widen many roads. Dramatic safety increases, too, slashing the number of crashes and fatalities by up to 75%. So.lower auto insurance premiums and fewer auto body repairs. Fewer crashes also mean less need for heavy steel bodies to withstand accidents. Plus good news for older drivers: Safety overrides may keep them on the road longer. For marketers.a whole new arena for highly customized advertising. As cars plug in to the Internet for traffic routing, they'll signal where they're headed, triggering in-car ads. Headed past a doughnut shop? You may get a coupon for it. Such smart cars could also be the key to winning back younger buyers the 20- and 30-somethings who are abandoning car ownership, no longer seeing it as a mark of independence and financial success. Their passion for technology, combined with greater driving convenience of autonomous cars, may draw them back. Of course, there'll be some downsides and obstacles to negotiate: Liability if the car's driving when a crash occurs, is the carmaker responsible? Can governments make drivers cede control of vehicles at crowded junctions and other bottlenecks? Who'll control the Web data that drivers see? Privacy concerns are also inevitable. But on the whole, the technology's positives will far outweigh the negatives. ******************************************* Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
