launcht The coming 12 months will ideally lay the platform, for the onset of driverless cars. With that in mind, 2018 will showcase some of the finest designs the automobile industry has ever witnessed. The key innovations are down to several factors but these three key innovations are set to steal the limelight.
- Electric goes mainstream
- Dynamic displays
- Integrating autonomy
This should be the year when electric vehicles finally move beyond being a left-field choice to become featured products in the glossy brochures of mainstream manufacturers. There is a school of thought that says eco-cars have to focus entirely on aerodynamics; but here on, there’s going to be such diversification in the world of electric vehicles that car manufacturers will be battling to grab their own slice of the market — and that means we’ll see big jumps in design.
Cabins are also likely to evolve at an unusually rapid rate over the next 12 months. With brands putting increasing amounts of functionality through touchscreens, we’re likely to see fewer switches. In many cases, manufacturers will do away with physical instrument gauges completely in favor of high-res displays.
One can be pretty certain that, design teams will spend the next 12 months thinking about how vehicles can keep us entertained in the free time autonomous driving will hand back to us. Also anticipate seeing big changes in concept cars featuring revised seating positions, steering wheels etc. All the other pieces of the autonomous jigsaw are likely to fall into place, too and significantly progress from the current Level 3 Autonomy in the market.
