Technologies in Developement

•    Out of the six emerging technologies discussed in the article the one I think is less likely to happen is the Flying Cars idea.  They may be able to make them but more than likely the price of them will be very high which means only wealthy people would be able to buy them.  Not only would the flying cars themselves be pricey but it would also cost quite a bit to fuel them.  A flying car would need a lot of fuel and from experience two people I know own a mini helicopter and it costs them around $750.00 just for fuel to go for a 1 hour drive.  If they don't make many sales off them then chances are they won't make that much of a profit and will just stop making them.   

• Out of the six emerging technologies discussed I think the electric battery charging car will have the biggest impact on society.  With electric cars that means instead of having just gas stations you now will have Car-charging stations.  They are working on lowering the price for Li-on batteries.  One possibility for cost reduction is the further development of lithium-polymer batteries, which could potentially be lighter, more adaptable, more rugged and cheaper to produce.  Battery operated cars are going to have a big impact because you will no longer need gas which means you'll no longer need fossil fuels and it will be easier to just charge your car overnight and head out the next day.  Also with the cost of battery power possibly lowering battery powered cars could possibly be cheaper especially without having to pay for gas all the time.

• Out of the 6 emerging technologies discussed, I think that the almost reality one is the Autonomous Cars. There are already a lot of technologies that are similar to this technology such as cruise control and Ford's self parking cars. I think science is getting quite close to mastering a car that can drive itself so, I believe that in the near future an Autonomous Car might hit the general population.

• I think this new technology that Ford is working is pretty great. "The Drivers Workload Estimator" is going to be very useful to drivers someday. With this technology it can take some pressure off of drivers and help them to be less stressed by delaying calls. In situations where drivers are under a lot of pressure, the added stress that phone calls and text messages bring could cause accidents very quickly. With this new technology, drivers and their passengers can stay much more safe by not having extra pressures. This helps the driver be able to return back to a normal thought process and be able to avoid potential accidents that could be caused by added pressures in very testing driving situations like big cities or icy road driving.

• My thoughts on the flying automobile are it seems like a great idea and it looks like a lot of fun.  However my only concerns are if something were to go wrong, even a tiny little thing then your life is at stake.  It would need to be checked by an engineer quite frequently.  Also it would be very expensive, something most likely only wealthy people could afford which means not as many people will buy them as the company may expect.  It probably costs a lot to make the cars and if they make more than people buy than chances are they aren't going to make as much money as they will hope off them.  The flying automobile may cause a lot of accidents resulting in deaths due to being high off the ground or someone making a mistake and bumping into someone else.  The cost will not only be pricey for the product itself but to gas it will be pretty pricey as well.

 

• I think that a self driving car would also be an awesome thing to experience but, I think after awhile it would get kind of boring. They would take away the fun from driving experience. Personally I cannot wait to legally drive, I want a fun driving experience so I wouldn't want to have to switch over to a self driving car.  I enjoy driving, i find it amusing so a self-driving car isn't for me.  Driving something some people have a huge passion for and shouldn't be taken away from them. Although they might cut down on accidents, I just think we should take that as it is and move on without the self driving car. Not all change is good and i don't think a self driving car would be good for the populations mental health.