Features for the future: Innovative features you wish your car had

Feel free to share all those bright and interesting innovative features that you've been storing in your brain all this while!

BHPian CentreOfGravity recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

At some point, I'm sure most of us have thought of some innovative features, that, if they made their way into cars, would be amazing. As a kid, I used to think of many such features (some of which have materialised today) and would yearn to share my ideas with like-minded enthusiasts. However, most of my friends then weren't enthusiasts, so I ended up keeping all those ideas to myself. Now that I am a BHPian, I can finally share them, and also read others' ideas. So, feel free to share all those bright and interesting innovative features that you've been storing in your brain all this while!

Kindly note:

• Please avoid existing features that you want to see standardized in cheaper cars. For example, having a certain Merc feature in an Alto.
• They must be innovative or useful.
• You can build up on existing features. For example, point 3 of my list.

Here are my ideas:

Spick and span - Wipers which clean the ENTIRE windshield, and not just the driver's and co-driver's view. It would be just perfect for those with OCD, like me

Point and shoot – How many times has it happened that you want to honk at a person, say, behind you and when you do so, the one ahead gets annoyed? That is where a 360 degree horn comes into play. You should be able to select a vehicle and honk in that direction. If the car is advanced enough, the horn should play through the selected car’s speakers, so that others aren't irritated unnecessarily. Quite difficult to materialize I agree, but nothing is impossible right!

Lightning quick - Many cars these days come with a wireless charger, but they are painfully slow to charge and heat up your phone. Car makers should provide a solution to charge your phone faster without overheating it. It may not be innovative, but is certainly useful. IMO, a slow wireless charger is as good as no wireless charger.

Driver drowsiness alert pro max - There should be different levels of alerting in this system. If the driver is only slightly drowsy, it should beep as it normally would. If the driver continues to be drowsy, water should be sprinkled on his/her face. It should be made available even in cars without ADAS too.

Not belted? No ride – All cars today come with seat belt reminders, some even having reminders for rear occupants. This feature should be ‘pro max-ed’ – the vehicle should refuse to move until all occupants are belted. Also, the buckles must be able to reject other belts (which are available on e-commerce platforms to shut the reminder off) and accept only the one which is assigned to it.

Please feel free to criticise any feature posted by me or other members if they don’t seem reliable or fool proof. When you do so, please make sure to elaborate why it isn’t viable and provide a better alternative or a solution for that feature to work properly.

These were my ideas, now it’s your turn

Here's what BHPian Rehaan had to say on the matter:

I had a (very old) running list, so sharing it here:

SAFETY

(Forced) Good habits

A mobile phone that only lets you unlock it while the vehicle's handbrake is engaged. This prevents phone usage while the car is in motion, or even usage at very low speeds / in situations you might not realise your car has begun to creep forward.

Panic br...honking

In most panic situations, humans aren't quick enough to do everything required for the best outcome. Eg. brake hard, turn, downshift, honk to alert what's ahead of you, etc. An automatic rapid-fire honk on panic braking might be a good idea to alert those around (similar to how some cars rapid-flash/strobe their brake lights on emergency braking).

Speed sensitive horn

We have speed sensitive music volume, so why not the same for the horn? When I'm inching forward in traffic, I need just 80 decibels of a gentle peep to tell the Uber right beside me that he's getting too close. A softer and less piercing beep is best for the job. However, when I'm barrelling down the highway at 100 km/h and I see a stray dog lustfully looking at his lady friend across the road, I want the full power of an air-shredding 145 decibels to shake him out of his skin and back to reality before he tries to run across the road.

Speed sensitive headlight throw

We all know, higher speed = higher stopping distance = the further you should be looking ahead when driving. At night that's kind of hard when your headlights' low-beams are only aimed a fixed number of meters in front of you. If they 'looked up' a bit more at higher speeds, that would be nice.

Budget active aero

This one's a bit stupid; but imagine using drag from open windows to affect turning and braking. Basically your power windows are the poor man's active aero

CONVENIENCE

Quiet hours

Not so keen to wake up the entire neighborhood with your car's beep-beep locking alert when you get back home at 3am? How about quiet hours (eg. 10PM - 8AM) where the 'notification' volume is either greatly reduced or muted.

Reliable face/fingerprint unlock

Every 15,000+ Rupee smartphone has this, why not 10,00,000 Rupee cars?

You might say this one is pointless with keyless entry... but imagine not even having to carry a key (or a phone).

Indicators that turn on automatically

Google maps knows where you're going, so maybe it should also have the courtesy to inform the others on the road by announcing upcoming turns automatically - by activating the indicators for you.

Water & idiot proof sunroof

Existing rain sensors (used for auto wipers) could sense when there's a bit of a sprinkle and then automatically close the windows/sunroof if they've accidentally been left open.

Irritating indicators

Indicators that click louder and louder if they've been left on for >30 seconds while the vehicle is in motion... (more of a requirement on bikes, since bike indicators don't shut off automatically after a turn is made). This would prevent the ever-flashing variety of vehicles on the road, who you so patiently stay behind because you're expecting them to make a sudden right-turn, but it never happens - and then you realise they don't know that their indicator is on!

Here's what BHPian revsperminute had to say on the matter:

The Bose developed suspension on my Honda City. For a car driven 99% of the time in Bombay, that would be dreamy. Just imagine cruising through Andheri Ghatkopar Link Road at a steady 40Kmph.

Reference

Here's what BHPian nisshith had to say on the matter:

Wipers for the Side view mirrors as well have windows. It becomes very difficult to even see the side view mirrors during excessive rain, I know there are heated side view mirrors, but it only solves half of the problem.

Factory fitted dashcams are also a must which covers both rear and front view.

Here's what BHPian androdev had to say on the matter:

Nothing for my car (don't want be selfish) but I wish other cars have a driver seat that gives mild to moderate electric shocks to the driver anytime he/she is being nasty to other road users :-)

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.