Our cars are a very important part of our lives. We rely on them when going to work, doing family activities and going on vacation. A car is one of the most expensive objects the majority of people consider buying instead of renting. Having an own car is a guarantee for personal mobility. But how will our favorite everyday object change in the future?

Change #1: Electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) always seemed kind of unappealing for the most car owners. Short ranges, long recharging times and expensive battery-cells were seen as the major obstacles for EVs. But after Volkswagen's diesel scandal became public, the interest in EVs started to rise. VW, as the biggest car manufacturer worldwide, started to change their attitude about e-cars and announced a series of new vehicles, all electric, with production starting in 2019. These goals seem pretty similar to Elon Musks vision for an all-electric mainstream vehicle, the Model 3.

Currently Teslas are one of the few all-electric vehicles on the market. The Model X and Model S are very expensive and therefore not affordable for everybody

A lot of other car manufacturers started to announce new all-electric series with similar specs and pricing. Since Tesla is now getting a lot of new competitors in the space of electric mobility, the prices of such vehicles are likely to drop in the near future. This price drop will speed up the widespread adoption of such cars.

Change #2: Autonomous vehicles

With the Autopilot feature Tesla started pushing towards an autonomous future. A combination of several systems made it possible for the car to drive itself on larger roads. The driving-assistance systems like ACC(=adaptive cruise control), lane assist, blind spot assist, etc. started in very expensive models and found their way into more affordable cars. Nowadays these features are available in cheaper compact vehicles like the Seat Leon, Kia cee'd etc.

For actual self-driving cars, I don't see this trend continuing. The most autonomous vehicles announced by several manufacturers are for mainstream and not for niche customers. This is caused by the target audience. For a lot of people, cars are only a way to get from A to B, not an object of any special interest. Very sporty cars, on the other hand, are built and bought for driving fast and enjoying the feeling of driving with 250km/h down the Autobahn. When seeing this perspective it makes sense to break this trend and start in the mainstream series.

Change #3: Using the time you spend in your car

Driving sometimes feels like a total waste of time. Staring at the road for hours before finally arriving at the desired destination. While you are driving, every little distraction could potentially cause an accident. When autonomous vehicles are coming around, the time spent in the vehicle is finally really usable.

Linus from LinusMediaGroup had the chance to "drive" with a fully autonomous vehicle on the speedway. At 4:15 in the video, he is wearing a virtual reality headset while sitting in the driver's seat. This seems pretty stupid, but of course, it's just a demonstration of what is possible. Replace the VR goggles with your notebook and you'll be able to get work done before even arriving there. Turn the front seats around and you can spend some time with your family while driving.

Change #4: Cars on the blockchain

Earlier this year Porsche announced their first car to be part of a blockchain network: The Porsche Mission E. Porsche partnered up with XAIN to build a blockchain network for cars. Currently, the only use of this adoption is to securely grant access to your car. This seems pretty trivial, but its a great demonstration of the power of decentralized networks. There are, of course, a lot of possible use-cases in the automotive industry.

As soon as cars are able to drive autonomous, it will have to make transactions at some point. Such microtransactions are, with current currencies like Bitcoin, almost impossible since the confirmation times are too long and the fees are way too high. There are some projects around, like IOTA and Cadano, aiming to fix these issues. Another use-case is caused by the autonomous capabilities of these cars as well.

For self-driving cars to work, they need a lot of data. This data can be collected by the sensors built into these vehicles. This information can be shared with other cars, so they could avoid potential traffic congestions and accidents. This is where the blockchain comes in. Due the to the decentralized nature, the blockchain is the perfect solution for sharing this data. It's reliable and with future systems, it is faster than centralized ones.

Resources

• Porsche Announces Partnership With Berlin-Based Blockchain Start-Up XAIN
• LA Auto Show: Volkswagen I.D. Crozz EV gets a production version in 2020