For most of us, cutting edge in-car technology was only found in Hollywood movies - until now. Catherine Croninreports
Almost every year, the luxury car market unveils a sexy new model with even more advanced features and styling.
In the battle to win over the company chief executive or the football club manager, top of the range cars have a list of goodies to make the head spin. The costs of these gizmos can be absorbed into the price of top-end cars as manufacturers find new ways of defining luxury.
It's not so long since power steering, electric windows, smart wipers, airbags and ABS were rare or non-existent on family and smaller cars. Now manufacturers have moved on to intelligent and full-length airbags, and ABS is an EU requirement. The rate of filter-down is getting quicker and the aftermarket steps in where carmakers are found wanting; parking distance control, MP3 facilities, and satellite navigation systems with varying degrees of sophistication can be bought off the shelf.
So what are family and smaller cars offering, and what will become more commonplace in the next few years? We asked some industry experts to select some of the most likely.
TYRE-PRESSURE MONITORING
By law, all cars sold in the US must have tyre pressure monitoring, says Dr Remi Olatun-Bosun of the University of Birmingham. Once tyre pressure goes outside the range for the car, an alarm is raised.
BRAKE ASSIST
Brake assist applies full stopping power when an emergency is sensed while adaptive brake lights flash to warn drivers behind. Found on nearly all larger and luxury cars, brake assist or some version of it, will be more commonplace since it's tied to the anti-lock braking and stability control systems.
STABILITY CONTROL
The same is true for stability control itself, says David Browne of Coventry University. Electronic stability control intervenes on detecting the vehicle at the limit of its grip to bring it back under control. The latest Dynamic Stability Control systems found in the likes of Jaguar detect and respond to both oversteer and understeer.
VOICE-ACTIVATED COMMUNICATION AND ENTERTAINMENT
Ford and Fiat have separately got together with Microsoft to develop an in-car system which allows a driver operate his mobile phone and MP3 player through voice activation.
Using bluetooth technology, Ford's Sync allows a driver call out any mobile phone number, or simply shout a name from his mobile phone contact list, and the system will dial the relevant number automatically.
And the driver can request the system to read out text messages and to select whatever music he wants to hear on his MP3 player, which plays through the car stereo system.
Fiat currently offers Blue and Me in Ireland. Ford plans to offer Sync in the US only from next year, so it will be a few years before it crosses the Atlantic, according to Ford Ireland.
SAT NAV
Currently, an expensive optional extra on larger cars and very popular in the UK and Europe, Browne believes Satellite Navigation will become a more widespread option in family and smaller cars over the next few years.
BLIND SPOT DETECTION / CAMERAS AS REAR-VIEW MIRRORS
Manufacturers like Volvo and Honda have developed different systems for blind-spot detection. These comprise bumper-mounted radar systems or wing mirror digital cameras that monitor the rear blind spots on both sides of the car. When a car passes into the blind spot, a light flashes on the side-view mirror or on a screen dashboard alerting the driver.
VIBRATING SEATS AS LANE DEPARTURE WARNING SYSTEMS
Currently in the Citroën C4 and C6, Browne believes that more makers will adopt something similar in the next few years. The seat vibrates when a driver crosses the white line and the indicator has not been activated.
MOOD LIGHTING
Ambient lighting will become the new cup-holder. Luxury cars have long incorporated it, but it is getting even more dramatic in all cars. It is not essential or needed, but it creates surprise and delight and the technology is there to do it at little cost, says Browne.
LED HEADLIGHTS
LED is a low energy, long-life source of light. It is the backlighting in LCD TVs and the technology behind blinking bicycle lights and the lights on the buttons of lifts. LED has been a long time in development; while it helps something to be seen it doesn't cast a beam, which has been the challenge for using it as the main source of light in front head lamps.
LED lights have been placed alongside each of the front headlamps in the new Audi R8 sports car.
According to Audi, the lights were inspired by the design of the Sydney Opera House.
NIGHT VISION
Currently being used by Mercedes and Honda, the basic idea is that the car sees what you can't at night or through thick fog. It reads the road using "far infrared" cameras on the bumper. These detect movement like pedestrians in, or approaching, the car's path. An image is displayed on a foldaway unit on the dashboard, with a visual caution such as a red frame around the moving object.
PARKING DISTANCE CONTROL - INTELLIGENT PARKING ASSIST
Parking distance control is an optional extra in some mid-range cars and systems can be bought over the counter. The next step by manufacturers like Lexus include Intelligent Parking Assist found in the LS 460. A rear camera and ultrasonic sensors identify viable parking spaces and then calculate the right steering angle to guide the car into the space, or to parallel park.
PRE-CRASH SAFETY
Pre-Crash Safety is a radical advance on the theme of ABS. Pre Crash kicks in when the car's electronics sense a sudden change in driving and foresee an accident. But instead of just one or two systems, several are activated.
Brake assist cuts in when the driver engages the brake pedal suddenly and forcefully, the gear ratios are adjusted to improve the vehicle's response to the driver's steering, and the suspension adjusts to control nose dive.
Currently being offered in top-end Lexus models and Mercedes, among others, the features vary slightly. With some, the seatbelts are also retracted to maximise restraint.
BIOMETRICS
Biometric technology recognises a person by unique physical features like the iris of the eye, or the fingerprint. It can be used to ensure that only the right person has access to a car. Up to now it has been found mainly in concept cars but a fingerprint-based locking device is available in the Audi A8. The jury may be out, however, as a Malaysian S-Class owner had his finger severed by car thieves, who made off with both.
DEPLOYABLE BONNETS
As soon as Euro NCAP started to measure how cars minimise pedestrian injury, the focus moved to developments like deployable bonnets found on the Jaguar XK, says Browne. Car bonnets typically have little clearance over the hard points of the engine except in clamshell-type bonnets found on Range Rovers, Saabs, the new BMW 5 Series and Mini.
But a high bonnet ruins the look of a sports car so Jaguar has gone one further. Like blowing up a balloon, the deployable bonnet rapidly expands on sensing an impact.
ALTERNATIVE FUEL / ELECTRIC CARS
There are several initiatives to develop cars which use alternative fuels and each development paves the way for further refinement. These range from advanced petrol engines, clean diesel engines, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, all-electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cells.
Saab has launched the 9-5 BioPower with the Saab 9-3 BioPower expected this year. Toyota's Prius and Honda's Insight have been around for a few years and the ultimate, hybrid cars, whose batteries can be re-charged from the electricity grid, is at least a decade off, according to industry experts.
DRIVE BY WIRE / ELECTROMECHANICAL BRAKES / BRAKE BY WIRE
In a "by-wire" system, direct mechanical control of a machine is replaced by electronics. Normally a driver's steering wheel movements turn the steering column, which goes to the rack, and affects the front wheels. In by-wire, the driver's steering wheel movements send a message electronically to the wheels, with software eliminating the need for heavy, space-consuming hydraulic and mechanical components.
Apart from steering, it can be used for braking, acceleration and gears. Found in the aerospace industry (fly-by-wire), several auto industry manufacturers are working with the technology. Mercedes uses almost full brake-by-wire on the E Class but its full implementation is quite a while away from the mass market yet. When it happens, according to commentators, it will virtually eliminate brake fluid; the brakes will be based on electrical motors making them more or less failsafe.
A big concern is the area of driver control in the event of an electrical failure.
"The system will have to achieve similar levels of confidence as the aerospace industry has for fly-by-wire, but within the packaging, weight and cost constraints of road vehicles," according to Richard Woodgate of Aerosystems International.
There are a host of other concepts in development including camless engines (technology to open and close the valves electronically instead of relying on the inefficient spinning camshaft) and vehicle-to-vehicle communications (using wireless technology to allow cars send data to each other. A skidding or stopping car in front sends signals to nearby vehicles without any driver involvement).
While the advances are welcome and inevitable, they are not without some downsides. Luxury cars have long been more expensive to service and repair. Replacing car keys, tyres and lights was once relatively inexpensive. Today, replacing even simple fobs, run-flat tyres and headlights becomes a much costlier job. But here's to the future.