Will it be like in back to the future movie when biff ruled the world or like robocop when the cars tell you " you are! experiencing a accident" it sure looks like mercedes seem to go in to this direction design wise. No arguments please your allowed to have your opinions and respect others opinions and make your own comments about what you think? http://mercedesblog.com/mercedes-f-015-luxury-in-motion-concept-debuts-ces-2015/ toyota is producing the first fuelcell car miria http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/
When I started my apprenticeship in 1970 I was told a mechanic was a poor choice as soon we wouldn't need cars, and the ones we had wouldn't have wheels.
So I predict we won't have cars but moving sidewalks and road transport won't have wheels. We've been told this for so long it just has to happen.
Like they predicted the advent of the PC & internet would mean most office workers would work from home & traffic jams would be a thing of the past . Yet they gets worse every year . The oil was going to run out & by now wed all have electric cars .
gammelvind,
Jan 9, 2:19pm
Cars will be here for a while yet, styling of course will change. I can see the days of cars being totally self drive, we are merely passengers in the same way half the people are trying to drive today. Electric vehicles will become the norm as that technology improves.
survivalkiwi,
Jan 10, 6:28am
Cars will be more of an appliance than a piece of enginering. The cars built from about 20 years time will never be classics.
muzz67,
Jan 10, 6:40am
Will any everyday car from today be classic? Cant think of one.
survivalkiwi,
Jan 10, 6:49am
Who knows. In 50 years time there my be Suzuki Swift clubs everywhere. Where all these old bearded guys with long socks and roman sandles stand around talking about the day their mother arrived home in a brand new swift.
babcorp,
Jan 10, 9:10am
I remember Dad bringing home his new car and I had to jump start it with my S4. ahh those were trhe days!
Saw in a recent trucking mag that Merc are ALREADY making driverless trucks. no not the suv type of truck but the actual trucks , the feeking big ones, with trailers that weigh 40+ton. the future is now alright.
skyblue17,
Jan 10, 4:42pm
Brand new demo and already $15000 off RRP. That's quite some depreciation. With that fuel consumption not driving it would be the smart option.
Haha I remember my father saying the same about his MK1 escort and later about his Mazda 808. Now look a the attitudes to those cars.
serf407,
Jan 10, 9:42pm
Zero Motorcycles have a few models. http://youtu.be/iCeGOvYRKz0 It will be some bike like this lady is riding that will be a significant market when the fuel for even small ice cars gets really expensive.
The current low fuel prices are potentially the calm before the storm. Maybe China might be the source for NZ's used cars if Japan goes fuel cell and NZ does not have a hydrogen network for these fcv cars. The used Chinese cars might be put down a robot line and converted from left hand steer to right hand steer and given a NZ compatible autosteer system.
intrade,
Jan 11, 9:50am
they call them flyers in europe the post service also uses mostly electrike trike type things and electric 2 wheelers for mail delivery
lazzo,
Jan 11, 10:03am
I recall back in the 1980's watching a television show called 'Beyond 2000' which was basically about the possibility of the products we can expect to be a part of our lives after the year 2000, it gave you the impression we would be living like The Jetsons!. Well here we are in 2015 and not that much has changed!
harm_less,
Jan 12, 7:11am
Electric!
Cheap and infinitely available energy, great performance, easy to up-tech for nav/self-drive. The only hurdle is battery capacity but that is likely to be solved inside 5-10 years which will see electric vehicles become the norm.
whqqsh,
Jan 12, 7:53am
everything will be too dangerous & everyone will have allergies & be sickly due to lack of real work & exercise (but funnily enough the gyms will be flat out). We wont be allowed to drive cars as thats too dangerous, automated shuttles or non self-drive cars will be the norm. kill me now!
socram,
Jan 12, 8:10am
Back in the 1950's, kids at school used to joke that by the time I got a pushbike, kids would be getting flying saucers for Christmas.
They have been forecasting the end of driving private cars, especially petrol driven, for as far back as I can remember.
Just think about it. NZ only has a population of 4 million in a similar land area to the UK with 60 million. The feasibility of us all having door to door travel pods running either on the roads or even on dedicated monorail/magnetic propulsion is only feasible in a brand new, futuristically designed city. Reversing any existing technology and infrastructure in a country even of this size and population is impossible even if only from a cost point of view.
Electric cars (certainly running off the mains) is a no go and not environmentally friendly. Solar and hydrogen power are still not feasible, so for a long time yet, nothing much will change, especially with a vehicle fleet currently averaging 14.5 years.
What we have seen over the last 60 years is better, more reliable and economical cars, with more bells and whistles, requiring less servicing but with a planned obsolescence rather than restoration.
In the main, family cars are only better in terms of the above criteria but they have become bland and characterless, designed by computers and committees rather than engineers and creators with flair and imagination.
whqqsh,
Jan 12, 8:48am
I wouldnt be too sure about lack of rapid change, just make sure it becomes a 'must have' then link it to self perceived safety rather than just a fad. the escalation of 4WD/SUV ownership rates show the effect of this.
melonhead1,
Jan 12, 4:56pm
Hopefully all the shitbox cars with rb engines will have rusted off the road in "the future".
craigs_workshop,
Jan 12, 7:04pm
tech reality isnt a match for the imagination
to believe in electric driverless vehicles is to believe in technology thats reliable & fault-free
harm_less,
Jan 12, 7:28pm
We have 5kW of grid tied PV solar panels that provide most of our household electricity needs including the charging of our Nissan LEAF electric vehicle. At retail power price the LEAF's energy use is less than 4c/km, but with our own generation is far less than that.
Ours may be the exception at present but as oil prices rise, as they will with a vengence once OPEC stop manipulating the markets to counter the fracking production, fossil fueled vehicles will become prohibitively expensive to run and electric vehicle production and sales will mushroom. We will be seeing a very different personal transportation system in 5-10 years.
socram,
Jan 13, 7:25am
Current TV advert: "Solar panel installation $7,000, saving UP TO $900 a year. "
Factor in the cost of finance and the fact that the technology is still in a growth phase, that doesn't stack up. I think there is a long way to go yet. Maybe 15-20 years, but the take up of solar power in a country such as NZ with a fair amount of sun has been extremely slow.
The very environmentally unfriendly costs of building electric cars is also a major bar to the acceptance.
Even fossil fuel vehicles are way more environmentally friendly than they used to be. The latest tyres I bought claim to be more economical and although it isn't easy to assess, given that the majority of our driving is local, the claims do seem to be justified based on a longish run at the weekend.
Cities such as Auckland and Wellington are to established for real progress, so I would anticipate that sooner or later, some visionary in power will plan a brand new city, complete with a futuristic and properly planned transportation system and infrastructure, but I am not holding my breath.
Walt Disney's initial plans for the Epcot Centre are well worth reading and that is probably as close as we are going to get. There is a chronic lack of vision and long term planning in NZ, so things will only ever be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
However, as a life long petrolhead, I'm just glad I have lived in the age I have. I would not want to be born today and I'm glad I didn't have to live through a world war. Those of my age have seen the growth of technology that even the writers of Dan Dare hadn't forecasted back in the early 1950's, but we are still driving our own cars.
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