When they first appeared at trade shows in the mid-1960s, 8-track cartridges represented the cutting edge of in-car entertainment thanks to their portable format, relatively high-quality reproduction and potential for use with quadraphonic speaker systems. Supposedly future-proof, the system was soon superseded by more advanced systems.
Today, thanks to the rise of the connected car, in-car entertainment and technology are moving in a far more advanced era that promises to seamlessly integrate out experience in our vehicles with those we have outside. Read on to learn more about what the future has in store.
Speakerless audio systems
As the quality of audio has increased inside vehicles, so has the number of speakers. However, this causes issues for manufacturers as decent-sounding speakers require a considerable amount of space. They also add weight to vehicles at a time when automakers are striving to achieve new levels of the economy by stripping back on everything as far as possible.
Automotive supplier Continental has come up with one innovative solution which eliminates the need for speakers altogether by using compact actuator coils to create vibrations in the dashboard, doors, and ceiling of a vehicle to create sound. The system effectively turns the entire interior of a car into one giant speaker. The system is set to be of particular appeal to the companies behind the increasing number of electric vehicles on the market as every ounce of weight that can be saved results increased performance.
Dashboard Cameras
Dash cams – small video cameras that continuously record what is happening outside of your vehicle – have been steadily growing in popularity since they first appeared on the market. The most advanced models have the ability to capture audio both inside and outside a car, to film events happening in the rear of a vehicle and even to display content on a driver’s rear-view mirror.
Such devices can often be extremely useful when it comes to making an insurance claim as, especially in the event of a personal injuries case, they can provide crucial evidence of exactly who was at fault. Whether you’ve been injured as the result of an accident with another motor vehicle, a bicycle or even a pedestrian, a reputable legal firm such as Zanes Law can help you get the financial compensation you deserve.
Connected cars
Cars were once purely mechanical devices but the average vehicle on the road today makes use of the computing power of 20 laptops, is run by up to 100 million lines of programming code and can process up to 25 gigabytes of data each hour. The next stage of the automotive evolution is to connect all this computing power to the internet at all times to create what are known as connected cars.
Although many vehicles are able to achieve online connections by using the smartphones of their drivers, in future vehicles will have the ability to connect on their own. This means the ability to hear a song on the radio in your car and then have it continue to play through your smartphone when you leave your vehicle. It also means being able to check whether you locked your vehicle simply by checking an app on your phone and always knowing exactly where you are parked.