I imagine the race is on right now to develop the best parking space finder, the best journey tracker and the ultimate Bond-style rocket-launcher game.
At the same show, Toyota unveiled Entune, a solution for those of us who can’t bear to stop interacting with our smartphones even for a second. Download the Entune app to your phone, pair it via Bluetooth to your Toyota and you’ll be able to access Microsoft’s search engine Bing using what they call “conversational” voice recognition – or via the touch-screen dashboard interface. The system also lets you access selected services to book movie tickets or find a decent restaurant.
You might think Toyota would be reluctant to introduce anything that could be accused of distracting drivers, given last year’s controversies about sticking throttles and suchlike, but that was swiftly shown to be complete hokum and thus no deterrent. In the world of technology, Toyota has shown that you instantly look 100 years old if you don’t do things first.
And 2011 might also be the year when you want to get ahead of the game and convert your car’s radio from analogue to digital. Every new car sold from 2013 will come with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and in 2015 all analogue radio will be switched off. That will leave 31million cars with owners desperately scanning through FM or AM frequencies unable to hear Jeremy Vine or The Archers.
The cheapest solution is a small, portable DAB radio that can be stuck to your windscreen, rather like a portable satellite navigation device, and is available for as little as £30 (although you’ll also need a new aerial for £20-£100). Once you’ve heard crystal-clear football commentary on digital rather than struggling with the crystal set-quality of AM, you’ll never go back.
As for cars themselves, electric vehicles are going to proliferate regardless of the debate over the relative cleanliness of electricity production or the exotic raw materials required for the batteries and electric motors. The leading contender is the Nissan Leaf – recently voted European Car of the Year for 2011, and the first mass-production all-electric car to go on sale.
With the maximum possible government grant of £5,000, you can buy this perfectly normal-looking hatchback for just under £24,000.
It has a range of about 100 miles – depending on how carefully you drive, remember – and if the Government’s ambitious plans to increase the charging infrastructure around the country come to fruition you’ll be able to top the latest-generation lithium-ion batteries back to 80 per cent capacity in less than half an hour at a rapid recharge station.
Obviously there are no emissions but, let’s face it, the thing that will really impress your mates is being able to set the satnav, heater controls and recharge times via your iPhone. Similar mastery of the steering and accelerator is surely only an app away.
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