I’ll have one with wings please

July 29, 2019

Alright, picture this… It’s the year 2025 and you jump into your car to go to work.

Mini’s vision of the future

A hologram of your all time favourite character, Alf from the hit 80’s TV show, also called Alf, appears on the dashboard and wishes you a good morning. The sight of that furry little wise-cracking alien makes you chuckle.

Remembering you’re already late for work, you press the single red button in front of you. In an instant, your car wheels transform into jet wings and you’re propelled into the air at the speed of sound and arrive at work in time to grab that last office-supplied muffin before Tina from Accounts can get her greedy mitts on it.

OK, so we might have made all that up. But by the year 2025, there’ll be a bunch of cool (and real) innovations that will change the way we drive.

Here’s some of the awesome auto tech that’s currently in the works.

The connected auto mobile

These days we’re pretty used to our smartphones being connected to our cars. Things like hands-free calling, navigation and music streaming are all common place. But that’s just the beginning of what’s to come for our favourite pocket sized device. One example is Ford’s new SYNC Connect app which allows you to do a range of great things like locking and unlocking your car, starting your car remotely and allowing you to check important details like fuel, oil and battery levels. It’ll even tell you where your car is parked. Awesome!

Look Ma, no hands

It seems there’s a lot of talk about autonomous cars recently, and for good reason. It’s happening. Companies like Google, Tesla, Volvo and Mercedes Benz are already beginning to test vehicles that are completely operational without any human input. For drivers, this could mean less stress behind the wheel, less risk of an accident and more chances to sit back and look cool while reading an oversized newspaper. Sounds good to us.

Say Bye Bye to Petrol Bowsers

There’s a lot happening in the world of electric cars right now. It’s becoming more practical and affordable to pick up a car that doesn’t rely on an internal combustion engine. With improved batteries in the works, electric cars will soon be able to travel further and recover faster. To show how serious some places are on joining the electric revolution, the Dutch Parliament have considered a measure in which all cars sold in the country will be electric by the year 2025.

It’s a round world after all

OK, so this one might be stored in the far-fetched category of predictions, but we love the thought anyway. Tyre manufacturer, Goodyear, are currently looking at an ambitious new kind of spherical tyre that will give drivers complete 360 degree maneuverability of their car. Goodbye rotten reverse parking!

So on the sad side of things, it looks like we might have to wait a while yet before our dream Jetson’s- style flying car ends up in our driveway. But on the positive side, there’s plenty of gamechanging tech coming our way that will make driving safer, easier and much more fun. And that sounds fine to us.