Four ways cars will be changed by the environment

The roads are changing. In two decades, it will have changed to the point where real shifts in our attitude as drivers are complete. After all, more countries are starting to encourage legislation limiting many aspects relating to vehicles and fuel.

It’s a good idea to look to the future and see how new provisions will change our experience. Right now, there are several innovations taking place. For this reason, it’s good to keep abreast of them. This will help you more easily plan how you commute from now into the future. This includes what kind of vehicles you invest in and what to expect from the future of road travel.

We’ll discuss a few of these provisions as well as structure them in line with legislation and changing norms.

Cars limited from inner-city travel

Many governments are starting to accept that the future of city development and increasing populations. Goals of reducing populations also mean limiting cars from driving in inner-city zones.

In some areas, this kind of provision is already in place. Certain taxi cabs and rideshare services cannot enter the midst of many major city centers. Oslo and Madrid have announced plans to ban cars entirely from the midst of their city centers. This seems like a trend set to continue as cities expand outward and the ‘center’ grows in size.

Hybrid/electric vehicle standardization

This is an innovation we see beginning to take shape right now. More car manufacturers are hoping to innovate and become at the top of the electric car market. Companies like Tesla seemed poised to craft the most worthwhile innovation at the moment. However, brands like Vauxhall, Ford, and many others are beginning to ramp up their portfolio and developments.

For instance, the Ford F-150 Lightning is an impressive model. It shows even imposing utility cars can be adapting to this new standard. Meanwhile, it can still look incredibly worthwhile and not overly sleek or ‘too futuristic’ for regular use. You can click here to see its specs and design features.

As more hybrid and electric vehicles take shape, we can expect currently-designated ‘gas stations’ to offer electric charging booths. This may become an eventual installation that becomes reliably fitted in homes. For example, the U.K. government expects to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles beginning in 2030.

This will have major effects on what kinds of vehicles are adopted and how commonplace these integrations are. Many road users are beginning to consider adopting this standard ahead of time. This is not only to enjoy the best of innovative technology but to help strike their contribution to carbon emissions and fuel consumption.

Self-driving vehicles

Self-driving vehicles are becoming more of a possibility now, with GM-backed Cruise hoping to target one million self-driving vehicles by 2030. Management of fleets of this size now shows that vehicles programmed to follow routes and judge traffic situations, powered by machine learning AI, will become more of a possibility as the decade draws to a close.

Not only this, but the essential logistical infrastructure is beginning to be put into construction to make this dream a reality, as China’s Geely has recently begun production of satellites for its own self-driving vehicles, providing up-to-the-minute road maps for its planned fleet.

These cars are in development as a means by which to subvert logistical costs. Additionally, it provides a more reliable, constantly driven service. It’s also true to state that the future of public transport could also become adopted to these standards. A routine fleet of cars that are easier to maintain. Therefore, it will limit the number of people needing to drive their own cars, getting lost on routes, or driving in a manner that increases fuel consumption.

Mobility-As-A-Service

Mobility-as-a-service, engineered in an understandable manner by firms like Lyft and Uber, are starting to design the future of cars that can be booked for transport, shifting away from the standards of personally-owned transportation.

This service relies on a digital platform that makes booking, electronic ticketing, payment services, trip planning, and more to cultivate a reliable and growing client base for people hoping to pay for the miles they travel and no additional recurring costs.

Mobility-as-a-service will also go hand-in-hand with the requirements of a growing number of elderly drivers. This is becoming more common than ever, and with population growth, the number of aged drivers on the roads will be something that is, statistically, expected to contribute to an increased number of road traffic accidents. MaaS can help prevent this by making transport cost-effective, convenient, and accessible. The end-game: making personally owned transportation less useful. The more that these services promote ride-sharing on top of that, the more emissions will be curtailed.

Lessons learned

How can we summarize all that this innovation in development from now into the future? As ever, we can never predict with pure accuracy exactly how these changing norms will affect the future of travel, but we can see how the broader innovations and plans may elevate and denigrate certain sections of the transportation market.

We can expect manufacturers to begin coherently adapting measures towards transitioning to sustainability, as well as AI, computer-integration, as well as fundamental changes in public transport to keep up with this. As such, as simple consumers, adopting new technologies and keeping abreast of the latest legislation can help us identify exactly what standards we need to adopt. 

This way, can move with the tide and also have our own beneficial effect on the environment.