18 emerging technologies for the cars of the future

Multidisc CD changers came and went. In the predawn days of cloud music storage and smartphone-synched cockpit audio, a boxy CD changer in a vehicle’s trunk with eight or 10 music discs carefully loaded before driving down the highway actually looked like a technological sensation. But things changed.

Things often change quickly, rendering the hard work of engineers and R&D teams irrelevant.

Automated motorized seat belts looked for a brief time like a prudent new idea to help unmotivated drivers get their seat belts on — or really, to force them to do it. That technology has mercifully disappeared.

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on well-meaning voice-operated technologies that theoretically allow vehicle passengers to change the cabin temperature, change the music selection, conjure up driving directions or phone somebody hands-free.

These technologies may still be emerging from the status of “new,” but they might well persevere and become accepted standards in an industry that won’t stop improving.