Your Car Will Have a Heads-Up Display
Kia Trackster concept
If you want to see the bleeding edge of in-car tech — the high-concept stuff that will eventually trickle down to your everyday commuter — you turn to the top-of-the-line Audi and Mercedes-Benz vehicles. If you want to see what those two German manufacturers have planned for the future, you visit their respective booths at the Consumer Electronics Show.
In 2011, both automakers showed different visions of highly advanced contact-analog heads-up displays; the term means the system overlays information directly on objects seen through your windshield. The displays were fully interactive, customizable and controllable from the driver or passenger seat — and sometimes interacting between the two — with nothing but hand signals. Sure, the eventual production versions will debut on the high-ticket models first. But this is the sort of thing that makes its way, after a few product cycles, down to the Buicks and Hondas and Kias of the world.
View Slideshow: Hottest Electronics from CES 2012
Your Car Will Have Cameras Instead of Mirrors
Toyota NS4 Concept
Backup cameras may still be somewhat novel in the real world, but the most recent concepts have begun to harness the same technology to replace rear-view and side-mounted mirrors. Toyota's FT-Bh and NS4 concepts, revealed at Geneva and Detroit, respectively, send real-time information from rear-facing cameras to the driver, replacing the need for rearview and side mirrors. Kia, too, is in on that game with its stunning GT concept, which has side-mounted video screens in place of mirrors. It's a no-brainer, save for the fact that current vehicle safety laws have not yet caught up to the technology, making such mirror replacements illegal — for the time being.
Read: Which 2012 Cars Have the Best Tech
Your Car Will Go More Than 80 Miles on a Gallon of Gas
Kia Ray Concept
Many of the attributes pointed out on this list — hybrid drive systems, superstrong lightweight materials, even the smaller and more practical body styles — are part of a larger pattern, which is an industrywide drive toward fuel efficiency and lower emissions. As such, many of the concepts shown throughout the past year have boasted ultralow emissions or ultrahigh miles per gallon (or mpg equivalent), or both.
Take the Mitsubishi PX-MiEV II, for example. Originally shown in Tokyo in 2009, an updated concept vehicle, much closer to production-ready, was unveiled last year boasting 140 mpg from a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine and a pair of 60-kilowatt electric motors.
The Honda AC-X plug-in sedan concept, shown at the same show, is quoted at a massive 260 mpg from its combination of a 1.6-liter 127-horsepower gas engine and 120-kilowatt electric motor, and the natural-gas-powered Toyota FT-Bh is quoted at 134.5 mpg. The Kia Ray concept, a plug-in hybrid sedan concept built on the Forte platform and shown in Chicago, is quoted at 202 mpg.
Meanwhile, the Hyundai i-oniq, Nissan Invitation and Infiniti Emerg-E concepts all produce far less than 100 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide, something we will see advanced production vehicles looking to match very soon.
Watch Video: Futuristic Concepts from the 2012 Chicago Auto Show
Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine. He's recently relocated from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Los Angeles and is spending way, way more time in his car as a result.
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