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The Best Current Car Innovations

By Rachel - Silversurfers Assistant Editor Jan 6, 2015

As every new car drives off of the assembly line they come loaded with more new and advanced gizmos and gadgets.

Many of them have seamlessly fitted into and enriched our daily driving experiences while others are maybe more of a driving distraction than a benefit.

So here are the best modern innovations in car technology and where it looks like we’ll be moving towards in the future.

Self-Park

Perfect for the urban driver, the Self-Park system is quickly becoming available from most manufacturers and looks sure to become standard in all models in the future. The system works by reading sensors that are mounted around the body of the car; these detect the space around your vehicle for parking into tight spaces. Some models take over completely, parking for you, while some guide your hand and ensure you get into even the most awkward space.

The popularity and success of self-parking is in many ways paving the way for drivers to pass even more control over to their vehicles. With the rapid advancement of this technology, completely self-driving cars have already been tested and could be driving themselves on our streets in a few years to come.

GPS

Dash-mounted or in-built, The Global Positioning System better known as GPS has quickly become a standard tool for any driver and has caused the once reliable A-Z map’s sales to fall by 25% since 2005.

Monitoring your position via satellite, the system would originally display the simplest and most efficient route for any trip. However new innovations have even allowed the devices to collect and correlate traffic news and delays meaning that you’ll never be caught in a jam again.

Run-Flat Tyres

If you ever fear being stranded at the side of the road with a punctured tyre this innovation might be for you. Currently Available for BMW and Mini, these tyres are designed with very thick sidewalls meaning that they will retain their integrity when punctured allowing you to continue your journey for a further 50 miles before the tyre will need replaced.

Unfortunately these tyres cannot simply be installed on any car before its suspension and other factors are altered, so while retro-fitting your car with these new tyres is possible, it may be costly.

Heated Windscreen

Spending your mornings scrapping the ice from your car’s windows can be an infuriating start to any day but the Ford exclusive Quickclear system can put an end to this frustration. A thin layer of mesh imbedded in both the car’s front and rear windscreen’s quickly thaws the windows clear in minutes.

Bluetooth Connectivity

Mobile phones are an essential part of most people’s lives and being unable to use them while driving was a problem that was always going to be quickly solved. Bluetooth is standard in most modern cars and most can be upgraded with the system that allows both hands-free phone calls and also the ability to stream music straight from your phone through your car’s speaker system.

Connected Cars

The next big innovation mooted for the automotive industry is connecting our cars to the internet. The rise in “Connected Cars”, which are cars that can connect and communicate over the internet, has been relatively quiet but made large leaps in 2014.

The wave of connected car tests conducted by the major car manufactures ranged from installing computer systems that monitor and display your cars diagnostics to the rise in vehicle-to-vehicle communication using Wi-Fi like signals that allow cars to “talk” to each other, potentially lowering car accidents

But where connected cars may shine in the future is the new ways we will be able to control our vehicles with our smartphones. We will be able to check our fuel levels, turn on the heating before we enter and BMW has announced an application that will make your car drive to you automatically at a push of a button.

So as current innovations set out to make driving easier it seems in the future the cars will do the driving for you.

Do you have a car gadget you couldn’t live without?

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Rachel - Silversurfers Assistant Editor

Hello there! I’m Rachel and I’m the Assistant Editor for Silversurfers. I work behind the scenes to bring interesting, informative and entertaining subject matter to the Silversurfers community. I hope you enjoy the features we have shared with you. Please feel free to comment below and share your thoughts with us, we love to hear from you!

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