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3 Automotive Innovations To Look Out For In 2019

What does the future of innovation look like for the Automotive industry? In this blog, we take a look at some of the best automotive innovations and future car tech you can expect to see in 2019 and the coming years.

VR Passenger Experiences

Audi is leading the way with this cool concept that sees in-car entertainment take the form of a VR experience allowing backseat passengers to experience movies, video games and interactive content from, well, the back seat. How does it work? Well according to Audi's website "The fusion of the vehicle data and the game content is perfect: With each bend along the way, with each acceleration of the car and each application of the brakes, the virtual reality experience is shaped. In a similar way, the young woman is flying through a prehistoric landscape on a dinosaur and navigating a spaceship through space later on in the trailer.". 

Through a subsidiary, Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, Audi has co-founded a start-up company, holoride GmbH, which will commercialise this new form of entertainment via an open platform that will be made available to all carmakers and content developers in the future. Click here to watch their video from CES 2019.

Autonomous vehicles

Exceeding the self-driving vehicles that have been spoken about for a few years, manufacturers are looking more towards accident prevention for autonomous driving in 2019. This will mainly be experienced through technology assisting the driver by way of features designed to lower or completely eradicate human error on the road.

Features include:

• Camera monitoring systems (CMS) which aim to expand the driver’s vision beyond traditional mirrors.
• Sensor fusion which combines information from the camera, radar and ultrasonic systems to enhance advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) features.
• Cameras inside the vehicle aim to provide driver monitoring which will detect head and eye position to determine distraction or drowsiness whilst on the road.

Car Biometrics

Just like mobile phones and airport face scanners have been doing for the past few years, automobiles are now entering the world of biometrics, in fact, a recent study from Frost and Sullivan suggests a third of new cars in 2025 will use biometrics.

The main application for biometrics in cars will be:

• Security - One method which seems likely is the ability to unlock your car using your thumb, meaning keys will no longer be required and vehicle theft becomes much harder. Another method could involve iris recognition confirming the driver is eligible to drive the vehicle.
• Cashless Petrol Stations – Imagine your car could interact with the petrol station allowing the driver to fill up and leave? This could be one of the many benefits of automotive biometrics.
• Personalisation – Another use of biometrics could mean a more personalised driving experience. When the car recognises the driver through Iris or Thumbprint technology, features like temperature, music, maps and driving position could all be automatically adjusted to suit the driver.

As we head further into the future, make sure you keep an eye out for these technologies as they get released.