This car is closer to your driveway than you think!

Thinking about getting a self-driving car in the future? The idea of having your own robotic chauffeur seems straight out of science fiction, but technology is inching closer and closer to it all the time. Here are some features that will give you a little taste of the future of cars.

Sign Recognition

How often have you wondered what the speed limit is, or missed a sign because it was blocked and you came upon it too fast? Sign recognition reads the signs for you so you can adjust your driving accordingly. Especially in areas where the speed limit shifts quickly, it is a handy tool. In self-driving cars, it will confirm they follow the rules of the road and can adjust to roadwork and other obstacles.

Automatic Braking

One of the most popular self-driving safety features is automatic braking, which is exactly what it sounds like. A complex sensor package constantly scans ahead of the car, and if it detects an obstacle you are zooming up on, it brakes. The goal is to prevent front-end collisions, one of the more dangerous collision types, and it offers a preview of how self-driving cars will better prevent accidents. This feature is spreading fast, not least because insurers love it. If self-driving cars become standard only by a matter of degrees, this is where standardization will likely start.

Lane Assist

It is especially important for self-driving cars to stay in their lane, and lane assist technology is a sort of light version of that. As you drive, it carefully tracks lane markers and other cars and alerts you when you are beginning to stray out of your lane. This not only helps prevent accidents (and frustrating moments in traffic) but also helps you improve your driving. Lane assist shows how self-driving cars will keep on track when the cars themselves take control of the wheel.

The future of cars is smart driving.

Adaptive Cruise Control

Yes, without realizing it, you already have something of a self-driving car. Cruise control was arguably the first automatic driving system, where you could lock the gas pedal in place and focus on the other tasks of driving while on the highway. But, as you remember from driver’s ed, your speed needs to match that of the cars around you. Adaptive cruise control scans the road ahead, measures the speed of traffic, and adjusts accordingly, so it is a much safer form of control.

Automatic Parking

Just stepping into a car and letting it drive you to your destination may still be years away, but when you get there, robots can pitch in to help you get your car parked. Automatic parking, it turns out, is simple for cars to do, since it is slow, simple, and involves only a few motions. It also means that being bad at parallel parking no longer really matters, since your car will do it for you. If you have to do a lot of parallel parking, this capability is worth what you pay just for the savings in annoyance and time pulling into a tight space. Even if you never entirely give up driving to your car, it seems likely you will let the car do the parking in the future.

Looking for a car with the latest and greatest self-driving features? The research from CarFoundMe can help!