What will cars be like in the up-coming future?

[TerranceH08]

As a young car enthusiast, getting ready to head to my first year of college and start my life. I'm wondering what cars will i be able to buy when I can afford a new one (if I even can)? I'm kind of nervous.

Now first, i'm not a go green/tree hugger type of person but i do my part by recycling and being aware of my footprint on pollution and other environmental issues. But I don't my only choices to be all electric or other fuel cells, I want to be able to buy a brand new GTI and have it be a manual.

Im wondering what the choices are going to be, because I believe this next coming generation is going to be a huge change in the automotive industry. Hopefully one day I can teach my kid to drive stick!

Your thoughts?

 

[LilRaverBoi]

I will say manual trans are on their way out for sure. This has been coming from a long way off. I remember when sticks were standard on most all vehicles and you had to pay extra to get an auto....now it's the opposite way. Many cars don't even OFFER manual and that gets worse every year. I will only drive a stick and won't consider buying any auto car, so looks like if they phase them out completely, I'll be driving 'classic' cars the rest of my life.

Oh, and self-driving cars are not far off. That will happen within the next 10 years or so IMO....at least to some minor degree, possibly more significantly even.

 

[zrickety]

I see autopilot coming to cars soon, but they will be luxury options first. Maybe seen in public transport before it's standard on lesser cars.
I think manuals will still be around for awhile. Besides the nostalgia, they are cheaper to produce than automatics and generally better on fuel economy. People of every genre like manuals, even if they don't sell well. They might become more rare in the US, but Europe and places like Brazil have plenty of them.

 

[golfballer78]

they will more then likely be small electric 100hp P.O.S.'s that we would not be down with driving

 

[A1an]

Industry will continue to provide us with more electronic nannies, less serviceable components, more needless complication, etc.

 

[LilRaverBoi]

^^I definitely agree with that^^

Now if they came up with something to prevent people from talking on their phones or texting while driving, I 100% WOULD support that.

 

[Nitrorea]

Late chime in here.....

In the short term meaning 5-10 years I don't think much will change. As bad as the energy crisis is perceived to be it's not bad enough to warrant a major change in the short term. If anything I believe cars will become lighter, be made with fewer and more efficient materials but the good old petrol engine will be around for a very long time.

As main stream as smart phones are only 2/3'rds of people have them so getting everyone off gas engines will never happen.

Electric is not the answer either. You don't solve the world's energy problems buy plugging into the mains!

I also don't foresee driverless cars being mainstream, there are too many ethical issues that will get in the way. I believe the technology will be there but we won't let machines make those decisions for us.

IMO you will see more and more hybrid cars but not like the ones we have now. More along the lines of the BMW I8 where the gas engine is used to charge batteries. It's a more efficient way to utilize the energy from internal combustion.

I believe the real answer is natural gas but that is still probably 20 years or so away. It's the right answer for the car however it will take that long to switch out all existing gasoline pumps to natural gas.

The Gas engine as we know it today will NEVER go away but it will become too inefficient and too cumbersome to use on a daily basis.

Think if a manual typewriter.....people still use them when they sit down in their summer home to type up a novel while sipping on a nice glass of lemonade. They are a pain to use, heavy and slow however there is still something about the sound it makes and the feel of the key strokes that will never go away....

 

[SuperSkyline89]

The technology for self driving cars is already there, the legal issues are the only thing standing in the way. The biggest issue is who is responsible when a car crashes. The transition will be interesting to watch because right now these cars drive like their on sleeping pills. They follow at a huge distance and they're incapable of seeing as far ahead as humans, they'd get cut off by every human driven car out there. And there's the issue of how closely they follow the law, from speed limits to right of way to stopping for people or objects in the road. I look forward to the day I can get my car to drive me to and from work but I don't think they'll be good enough to deal with human driven cars for a while yet.

Manuals are a dying breed in North America. The rest of the world loves them but the way flappy paddles are going it seems like real manuals will only be available in cheap cars until dual clutches come down to that level also. As for sporty cars, unfortunately the manual is almost dead.

As for electric cars, don't think for a second that they'll all just be pathetic little appliances. Tesla has proven that electric can be sexy and that people will want these cars if they are. People are quick to judge new products, ignoring the fact that the gas engine has been refined for over 100 years so obviously it'll be "better" that electric for a while. People used to say that modern gas cars would have no power every time gas got expensive and yet Chrysler is making a 700+ hp that anyone can walk into a dealership and buy. Don't underestimate what engineers can do, you will be wrong.

 

[Kishon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfNDydBG-EI