Every year we see amazing changes in the automobile industry with new technology being added to cars. It is amazing to think how far cars have come since their inception, imagine showing Henry Ford satellite navigation or parking assist! It would blow his mind! The automobile has arguably defined the modern world more than any other invention bar the computer and it has come to mean more than merely a method of getting from point A to point B. A car can define you, it can affect your personal confidence heck in some cases it can be your office. So this week I thought we would take a look at some of the upcoming advances in car technology. Now when it comes to securing car finance, opting for a higher model car with more gizmos and gadgets will increase the value of the vehicle and may also help it keep its value longer.

A true photo of the Google Autonomous Vehicle

Big players in the self driving car & automotive industry finance market

There are some huge developments being worked on with cars and it isn’t the usual suspects of General Motors and Ford that are leading the charge. It is tech giants Google and Apple who may be shaping what comes next in the automotive industry. This should come as no surprise with Google being worth $365 billion dollars and Apple a staggering $733 billion! Apple is now worth more than the entire gross domestic product of Switzerland. To put this in comparison Ford is currently worth $63 billion and the most valuable car company in the world is Toyota at $239 billion. So it would make sense that these companies are trying to get a piece of the global car industry which is forecast to be a $904 billion dollar industry in 2015, up 24% since 2010. So let’s have a look at the two big developments happening in the car industry that could change the way we travel.

Connected Car Finance, Self Driving Car Loans, Autonomous Car Finance. What terms will be commonplace in the future?

The first thing is connected cars. Now I’m not talking about just the ability to connect your Bluetooth so you can listen to the newest Taylor Swift tracks, I am talking about cars that connect with each other and other devices around them. The idea here is to cut down on accidents as by using vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure networking connected cars will be able to sense not only other cars but pedestrians with smart phones in their pockets or even a cyclist about to come around the corner. By being able to sense where hazards are the car will be able to avoid them increasing safety for the driver and everyone in the vicinity and cutting down on congestion on the road. Cars will use cloud technology to link with your apps and preferences to tailor you’re driving experience to you. For example when you are getting ready to start your day in the morning your car will link to the cloud, check the weather, your to do list and traffic to help plan your day. Or a rental car would recognise you when you get in and adjust to your preferences, adjusting the mirrors and loading up your iTunes playlist.

However, perhaps the best known technological advance in the automotive industry is Google’s research on self-driving cars. These experiments spark visions of what we have seen in science fiction movies like Minority Report or Total Recall where you sit back and let the car take you to your destination. Self driving vehicles will rely on cameras, radars and other senses whilst being guided by detailed maps. Google has been trialling its autonomous cars for over a million miles worth of testing. In this time it has had more than a dozen crashes however in every single crash it was the fault of the traditional car, most often rear ending the Google car.

Now let us be realistic here, it will probably take quite a while to get to this new vision of the automotive future however I for one think it will be an amazing time to live. We are talking about a land where cars never crash, traffic jams are rarities and police can refocus on crime as cars won’t be breaking the law.

No matter what changes with the future of the automotive industry, there are a few certainties that we can all rely on when it comes to our cars; they will always be a vital part of our everyday life and your dedicated finance manager from 360 Finance will always get you the best rate and repayment on your car loan whether you are in the drivers seat or if your car is driving itself.