Disclaimer: The thoughts / ideas are completely of my own and any resemblance to existing application / article / product are meager coincidence. If any of the points mentioned here are already part of any patent (prior to date of publish) or future product of any company then it is purely coincidental. One could email me to remove the content if required. If anyone gets an idea to patent this, then they could include me in references.
As the name suggest, I am trying to think aloud on the futuristic applications / gadgets that could enhance human life until it exists. This is the first article of the many which would get published here in future.
In this first article we shall discuss on what could be the major features we could expect in our future automobiles with the addition of "Internet of Things (IoT)". So lets call this futuristic cars as "Smart Cars with IoT".
Many of us would have read about the current hot topic called "Internet of Things (IoT)" which is widely being researched and applied into multiple products. The concept has been in the market for a long time now but companies have slowly started making it part of their vision now. With the thrust from some major MNC players, it is estimated that by 2020 billions of devices shall be IoT enabled.Now think of the cars we have in India and think what if those cars could actually connect to internet and have historical data of our car like its Car unique number, engine details, mileage, music we have heard often etc. Additionally, the passengers could talk to the car and get the music or data from internet for entertainment / infotainment.
So in-short imagine that our future cars are connected via internet to a dedicated cloud account and records all the important aspects with respect to our journey, vehicle essentials, entertainment, infotainment etc. How cool would that be right?
I shall list some of the features that we should have in our Indian Smart Cars.
1. Central (integrated) Processing Unit connected to all sensors, IoT, and GPS
2. Sensor List within the car: Gas Level, Tire Pressure, Pedal Pressure, Engine Life, (Engine & Gear) Oil Level, Internal and External temperature, Air Quality, Humidity, Speed Limit, Vehicle Proximity, Intruder Detection & Collision Detection, and Mood & Alcohol
3. Mechanical Devices connected: Gear, Wipers, Wheel Locks, Brakes
4. During start of car the destination are usually fed to get the directions, this shall continue as done in majority of the cars today
5. During the motion it shall keep detecting the air quality to decide whether the window should be opened or shut down all the time. It shall also collect the information for the area under travel all the time and keep informing the user of the air quality status
6. During the motion it shall keep detecting the temperature to decide whether the AC should be switched on or heater and same shall be communicated to the passengers. It can also pre-plan based on the information from cloud for the area of travel and where the AC settings need to be change or temperature of the AC to be changed
7. Based on humidity during travel it shall inform an onset of rains & accordingly it shall start the wipers.
8. All the information and current zone coordinates of the car shall be fed into the cloud (personal ID). Well wishers can track their travel zones and check how much time is left etc. Same data also shown to the passengers. Think of it, people can be ready accordingly to receive you !!
9. Wi-Fi and cloud based information gathering on any topic – for music, information from internet and news etc. Playing of songs based on mood sensor inputs and receives inputs via sound and responds back verbally. Same with browsing videos and Video Conference.
10. On detection of oil level below reference level, it shall automatically inform the nearest gas station for the liters of oil and asking them to keep it ready with car identification number. It shall change the course of direction shown in car and indicate user to do the needful. If the user does not go into the gas station, it shall slow down the car and give 3 warnings. Beyond that it shall take auto control of the car and take the car into gas station to refill the oil. Once the refill is done, the same route is reorganized in the car and passengers can start journey
11. Same procedure followed for petrol / diesel, Tire Pressure / Flat Tire or other depletion of other essentials
12. Based on day or night time, the car shall (already fed) check if the speed is beyond specification limit or control limit of drivers, and warn the driver once. If no change seen, the car shall take control and fix the speed below the control limit or spec limit (whichever is lower).
13. Based on whether the driver has taken alcohol, it shall reduce the control limit or stop the car automatically.
14. In case of possible emergency like flat tire or accident prone driving (erratic movements tracking) or constant phone talking or hit by car etc, it shall inform the local police and ambulance / 911 immediately asking for help with Car identifications and location coordinates. Also auto SMS service to dear ones (pre-defined numbers).
15. Based on vehicle proximity at high speeds or while parking it shall inform / warn the driver of same and perform auto driving from that stage to avoid accidents or damage to the car. Same with collision avoidance.
16. When it’s locked or any part of the car is broken down, it shall automatically inform the 911 and car service agent, insurance agents and switch off the engine from turning own in any manner. It also will capture the image of the person breaking into the car and load into cloud account.
17. After journey is over and parked, it shall perform auto clean inside the car and collect inside a bag in the backside of the car. It shall auto clean the front and back screens, head lamps before closing down fully
18. Land detection and fish eye camera based auto parking + body cleaning requirement detection also added.
19. It informs the number of passengers, destination and route information to cloud network, where by prospective passengers could check and ask if he could be included for car – sharing.
20. Auto maintenance detection and indicator to owner. Next drive (when indicator turned on, it shall automatically take the car to service agent and then continue with actual journey.
21. Records of all the travels done, petrol used, refilling date, performance, mileage, repairs done etc will be automatically entered into the cloud a/c.
22. Auto saving of the video conferences done, video or audio preferences, downloaded are all saved into cloud a/c for future access and customer comfort
23. If the owner has fed the coordinates limit on the GPS for specific coordinates (for security), then as soon as the car goes beyond the limit, it shall auto brake the car and halt. Indicate the owner and call 911 / cops.
24. Auto open and closure of the garage based on voyage status, internal light controls, headlight beam controls, fog light controls and parking light control.
What do you guys feel? Would you like to buy a car so awesome?
What are the other features you think we could possibly add to this list?
Please send your suggestions to me and I shall surely post them if they mean good.
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