Top 5 Technologies Coming to Your Car (Soon)

1. Emergency Steer Assist

If your car is equipped with a form of emergency brake assist, it already knows when it's too late for late braking. It's simple, really—your car knows how much traction it has, as well as how many feet it's going to take to brake in time to avoid an accident. But the fact that you've ignored the last chance to brake doesn't necessarily mean you've lost the chance to swerve. And that's where Emergency Steer Assist comes in.

Before you delve into freakish paranoia, you should know that the system doesn't take over and steer for you. Designed to compliment emergency braking systems, ESA works with your electric steering rack to vary the torque by direction, thus very convincingly "suggesting" the proper steering wheel motion. Suppose you need to swerve left—the torque in the clockwise motion is greatly increased (resistance), but it's ridiculously easy to turn the wheel counterclockwise. Similarly, during the maneuver recovery phase (you may know this as the tank slapper), the inverse is true, the steering working in tandem with ESC (electronic stability control, mandatory on all cars in 2011) to control the aftereffects of the swerve.

2. Active Force Feedback Pedal

The more information being relayed to the driver, the more confusing things can be. Continental's philosophy is the right one: instead of bombarding the driver with signals on an already crowded cluster or creating ever more beeping noises, they've turned to haptic feedback systems. You know, the ones that respond to your inputs physically to give information directly to your muscles.

The force-feedback pedal is pretty self-explanatory: The foot pressure can be varied instantly, from super-stiff to feather-light and, in addition, the pedal can pulse back on your foot. Think of the potential uses: In today's increasingly eco-friendly cars, the pedal pressure could become stiff when you're driving like a hooligan. It could pulse twice quickly for an upshift or downshift, and it could even assess traffic conditions ahead to discourage unnecessary acceleration. In the near future, your car will pick up an emergency stop warning from the car ahead—miles ahead—and could easily alert you with the pedal. <

3. AutoLinQ

Ford isn't the only company attempting to bring apps to your dashboard. Continental showed its take, dubbed AutoLinQ, in Germany this week. They've got partners such as Navteq, Navigon, Shazam, Pandora and more lined up to bring the perks of your smartphone to your car.

Maybe the best part of Continental's system is that it's Android-based, which means that developers will be free to create whatever applications they want. Naturally they'll need approval by Continental brass before becoming rolling distractions, though. And on that topic, the system is able to read things such as e-mail or rss feeds aloud, in an attempt to reduce distraction. The company is working on text-dictation software, too, so the entire system will be zero- or one-click—your eyes won't leave the road.

Continental's initial connectivity partnership is with Deutsche Telekom, but count on a U.S. deal before the system is released. The cell provider will offer a package price, not unlike what you get with an iPad now, until wireless infrastructure becomes pervasive enough to be a viable option (that is, both roadway-mounted and ad-hoc car-to-car communication).

4. Intelligent Tire System/Fill Assist

A new type of tire sensor, mounted on the inner tire tread (as opposed to the wheel), measures tire pressure, temperature, g-force and load. It weighs a few ounces—less than current TPMS (tire-pressure monitoring sensors). When a heavy load is detected, for example, the system can notify the driver that more air pressure is needed to optimize gas mileage, handling and safety. The sensors also communicate with ABS and ESC, so that these systems can optimize for a given tire pressure or vehicle load.

In addition, the sensors are programmed for the tire in which they reside, so they can tell you things like when you're going too fast for snow tires, when the tires are getting bald, or when to switch to summer tires. Like the other four innovations, this one will most likely find its best use in the long future, when cars are able to send data about road conditions to one another. If, for example, you slip on black ice, your car notifies other cars on the road of the hazard.

The new sensors also allow for a new level of precision in pressure management. We're looking at our tire pressure on an iPod, pressure which is changing by the pound as the test engineer deflates the tire. When he's inflated it back to the correct level, a display in the car (and in our hands) will say so—and the car will even issue a little honk, telling you that you're done filling.

5. Simplify Your Drive

Carmakers have realized that the machines they build must serve more than one purpose—you're not always in the mood to fly around corners, or to be cushioned in the lap of luxury. That's why many modern cars have simple profiles, which are designed to transform the car with the click of one button. But what's the next step after Sport, Normal and Comfort?

Continental thinks it knows, offering up a fully LCD interface to better broadcast differing personas. Sample modes are Eco, Comfort and Sport, but carmakers will be able to customize these profiles. Also, users will likely be able to create their own when the system goes on sale. Like current cars, just about every system is affected with each button push, including throttle mapping, suspension damping, steering feedback, and more.

The difference here is that the actual look of the instrument cluster changes as well—for example, in Eco mode, there's a four-leaf clover that can be "filled" green by driving economically. When all four leaves are green, the driver can head to the dealership for a reward. This, the company hopes, will not only encourage green driving, but will also drive online customers to physical dealerships. Also, the navigation will search for the most economical route, rather than the fastest or the shortest.

In Sport mode, red gauges and an accelerometer replace the green layout, and in Comfort, only the speedometer and relevant functions are shown. The system also works with Conti's new Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal. Perhaps most interestingly (and scary), Continental sees the system as a way for manufacturers to hit CAFE targets: drive enough in Eco mode, and you'll earn a romp in Sport mode....