Concept Cars: New Technologies for the 21st Century

"Are we there yet?" A question very familiar to parents traveling with children in the car. But it also is a question anxiously being asked by drivers and their passengers during what we keep hearing is this transitional time of personalized, automotive transportation. Once we get there, we're told, our cars will be driving themselves. All we'll need to do is to tell the vehicle where we desire to be and then ride along as we are whisked along in a vehicle that emits no pollution, nor will it crash because it will be in constant communication with all the vehicles around it whether it is hurrying down the highway or simply carrying us to work or play, or school or the store.

We aren't there yet, but those who produce our vehicles assure us that we are getting closer. One of the ways they make such assurances is to give us glimpses of that future in the form of concept or "dream" cars, 3-dimensional previews of where they see "there" to be. But more than shapes designed to draw our attention, these dream cars are just as much, perhaps even more so, about technological advancements.