The article is supposed to predict the future but is flawed. The first part is how electric vehicles will make everything different, because electric is the future. So exhausts, batteries, and others are a thing of the past because of electric vehicles. No mention of hydrogen cars, or cleaner regular gas powered cars.
Then there is negating their own predictions with a prediction. You don't need mirrors because cameras are so common, and then you don't need cameras because the car will drive itself.
There is also a push for phones being the controller of the car. No keys, just a phone. Adjust everything by phone. Then they say the phone won't connect directly to the car because it's wireless charging.
There are some cool ideas, but the prediction is bad.
What are bad predictions you've seen? What are your predictions?
In Star Trek, we saw what I think is most likely to happen in the episode where Picard went home:
Most people are going to live their everyday lives with very little changes over the centuries. They'll have a few nicer gadgets, but most will shun the fully automated life style. IF it's not cheap to introduce and maintain, thus super convenient, that shit will be a fad and go the way of the dinosaur. It's not Luddite, it's human nature.
I liked the episode where Siskos dad sees his business boom because most starfleet folks want a hot and actually cooked meal.
Even Nog.
That episode was also an interesting thought about Covid and how people responded.
People who give in so easily get what they fucking deserve.
I like how replicated food was portrayed in TNG. Essentially, replicated food isn't bad. It's just incredibly consistent. Every slice of pepperoni pizza tastes exactly the same, every chocolate sundae, every raktajino, etc. That's why a home cooked, or restaurant-cooked meal is such a treat. It's different.
That's kind of how I expect it as well. The computer only knows this, and any way outside of it may be dangerous.
Not to be pedantic, but if your computer can replicate both a sundae and a pizza... surely it could also slightly vary the flavours in the pizza to make different batches unique.
Do you really want ice cream pizza?
I'm basically American so.... yes! If you can find a way to add hot dogs, bacon bits and ketchup to the mix, you might be the next Shark Tank billionaire. My finder's fee will be reasonable.
Electric vehicles will not be environmentally or systematically efficient for another 20 years at this rate. Car thefts will skyrocket as thieves get into hacking.
Why would things change? Most cars are already using electronic wireless locking systems. And those that don't use locks that are almost comically easy to open.
One thing to keep in mind is: your everyday criminal is lazy and dumb. They go for the low hanging fruit. Sophisticated attacks are beyond them. If they had any skills or work ethics they wouldn't need to be criminals. The very VERY few exceptions don't go after everyday cars.
Stealing cars isn't really worth it anymore, the secondary market for parts is shit and trying to sell it used will get your ass flagged immediately.
They'll steal shit from inside it, sure.
My prediction is: more blackouts.
They can barely keep the electricity grid stable as is. Hell, they already have to tell people not to charge the few electric cars out there, or even laptops, when the grid is unstable. My state in Germany even has an app that tells people when to reduce consumption because the grid is about to go tits up. It's not mandatory ... yet.
The more people switch to electric the more interesting it gets. Especially as reliable power plants get phased out in favor of uncontrollable and unpredictable renewables. It's going to be twice as fun for the US if they really go from gas stoves to electric on top of that.
My thoughts exactly. Just recently, California told its residents to refrain from charging their electric cars on a certain day, because it was straining the power grid.
One thing I loved about old school ST is that they knew their ships would need fuel. It's a plot point a couple of times. Commie Utopia and they still needed rocket unleaded.
The backup camera shit does seem particularly confused. Bad article. Dashboard displays are not going anywhere and a self driving car is going to need high quality cameras all around, so there's no reason for there not to be a backup camera. Literally just route the image from a rear facing camera to the in dash display.
There's actually a lot of really cool internal combustion engine tech around the corner (like Freevalve) hopefully the ICE engines will survive to see it common.
I look forward to ICE being common.
These are always funny to read decades later. This one seems particularly silly and low quality though.
As far as I can tell manual controls started coming back to more cars, after 90s cars all seemed to use automatic for a time. The automatic controls are too slow and imprecise when you just need a quick adjustment. If he's right about memory seating becoming the standard, I could see that eliminating manual controls. Except for the lean-back lever.
This doesn't make any sense. Yes cars have gone up in price but cheap is relative.
If they're more expensive than spare tires will remain as the basic version in cheaper cars.
I'll admit the height controls are nice.
True otherwise you have to do the manual pumping action. The automatics are better for that.
Electric cars are not practical from the viewpoint that we do not have the materials on Earth to replace all the batteries that we need and that we don't have enough power to keep people's houses lit and warm right now in a cold snap, never mind people charging their cars being put into the mix after work in the evening for the next day. We've not even got to the plan to switch from gas central heating to electric heat pumps yet!
Either electric cars are not going to work and the petrol/diesel bans being proposed will be quietly dropped or Governments are planning to abolish private car ownership. Probably the latter considering how there is a push for low traffic neighbourhoods and fifteen minute cities.
In terms of bad predictions I have seen, the UK adopting the concept that wind and solar will be the only forms of energy production that we need and that everything else is surplus to requirements. My prediction is that Net Zero will fail and fail badly.
Uh, that's already happened.
You live in Tuvalu? I met tons of people who were convinced it would sink tomorrow and then send me pictures. I could point out high tides and that their camps were causing erosion...