Friday Fives: Cars that are not cars

As technology moves forward demand to have the tech installed in cars are increasing making cars extremely "smart". We take a look at the five cars that are way too smart that one of them drives on its own! By Jerrica Leong Remember back in the days, people who could not park a car at the start of their driving career would have to grit their teeth and ram it, or in Malaysian terms “whack only la”, and hope that after parking their paintjob is still in tack? In the modern day we have so many parking aids and a thousand and one sensors installed in the car to help us park it. Now we even have cars that could park themselves!

But self-parking cars are a thing of the pass now, the new thing in cars is: self-driving or professionally known as autonomous cars. I’m sure you’ve all caught the gist of the self-driving Google Car. All the car needs is Google Maps and a huge antenna on the top of the car and it drives itself.

Of course not all cars can drive themselves, only the special mouse-shape blob can. We have cars that can’t drive themselves but still bares similar resemblance to it.

So my point is: cars are advancing to become less like a car. They still have the same purpose of transporting two legged creatures, chickens included, but they are so equipped with technology that they can drive without the human touch.

We look at the five Cars-that-are-not-like-cars on CAR’s first edition of Friday Fives!

No. 1

Google Car

The phrase “Get behind the wheel” will not be applicable to the new car that Google is planning to release in 2015. Reason being that there is no steering wheel and paddles and in their place a keyboard and mouse! But I’ve read reports, recently, that the “blob” doesn’t work in the rain even with the alien receiver on top! This car is set to bring a revolution in our motoring world.

No. 2

Infiniti Q50S

This car can’t drive itself but the Q50S hybrid is close. The Q50S comes with Infiniti Driver Assist System which includes Blind Spot Warning (BSW) and Blind Spot Intervention (BSI) Systems, Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Prevention (LDP) Systems, Back-up Collision Intervention (BCI), Active Lane Control, Predictive Forward Collision Warning (PFCW) and Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC), Forward Emergency Braking (FEB) *deep breath*. All these turned to the highest and you will get a car that would cruise without your assistance at all. So the Q50S cruises itself rather than drive.

CAR Malaysia has tried and tested this and we liked it. Be sure to fix your alignment frequently though!

No.3

Mercedes-Benz S500 Intelligent Drive

Like the Q50S, the S500 Intelligent Drive is also equipped with Active Lane Control. In fact, the S500 came first and was widely advertised that it followed in the footsteps of Bertha Benz’s first trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim to show off the car’s ability to drive itself. While the Q50S cruises by itself, the S500 Intelligent Drive can be let loose on its own in dense traffic and complex traffic situations.

No.4

BMW M235i

BMW created a new autonomous driving technology. The M235i doesn’t cruise nor drive itself, instead it drifts. Drifting independent of its driver was supposed to work as a safety feature during slippery situations. But I’m sure there will be people out there who would turn this on just to try out this feature since they couldn’t manage a drifting stun on their own.