Cool car technologies you can't have now

Want your car to automatically brake to avoid a crash, fly high over traffic-clogged roads or get 100 miles per gallon? Too bad, because while all of those things are technically possible, they are impractical for legal or financial reasons, which means you can't have one anytime soon.

There are some cool possibilities out there. There are cars that can steer themselves, brake to prevent collisions, run on electric power only, fly in the air and double as boats on the water. Others can get 100 mpg, cost only $2,500 new and feature a jet fighter-style, head-up instrument display. Yet another employs split-screen video technology to let the front-seat passenger watch a movie while the car is in motion.

“Oh, but I can get some of those things,” you insist. Not really. The technology exists today, for example, that allows your car to take over the steering for a simple task such as staying in a lane while driving on an interstate highway. Some new models employ a watered-down version of this feature to help encourage drivers to keep the car in the intended lane.

The new Toyota Prius, for example, uses its electric power steering to turn the steering slightly to keep the car in the lane if you start to drift out of it Other makes, such as Volvo and Nissan, don’t turn the steering, but suspend the power assist, except in the correct direction to keep the car in the lane, or they may selectively apply the brakes (as they can do with electronic stability control) to shepherd the car into its lane.

But we’ve all heard the stories about people who thought cruise control for the gas pedal meant they didn’t have to steer, either, and subsequently crashed. The fear is that these same people would misuse automatic steering, say in a neighborhood, and run over pedestrians while texting a tweet about not having to steer the car.

And rather than following the obvious course of action by jailing the negligent driver, some lawyers would contend that fault lay with the car manufacturer, and sue the fenders off them.

Potential legal worries
Car-makers, recognizing the impossibility of making automatic steering completely fool-proof, instead will not offer the technology for sale. So for now, look at cars like the Prius for the closest thing to automatic steering.

The same potential legal issue prevents automatic braking in vehicles to prevent collisions. Cars like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class have radar that scans for possible collisions, and use electrically actuated brakes that could stop short of most collisions.

But if the vehicle does strike an abruptly appearing obstacle, like another car that runs a red light at an intersection, the manufacturer can expect to be sued because, the thinking goes, the car didn’t prevent the crash.

So instead we have systems like Mercedes’ which only act once you’re already in trouble to reduce the force of an impact. The S-Class clamps on the brakes only with about half the potential braking force, and only when the car’s computer concludes that a collision is inescapable. The idea is that the driver has already caused the crash, so the car can act to reduce the severity of resulting injuries without too much exposure to legal liability.

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