Future Car Technology That's On the Road Today

­Now that we've talked about driverless systems that don't seem so driverless, let's look at some that fall a little bit closer to the sci-fi side of the spectrum. Pre-safe systems are starting to become common in certain luxury car brands. The systems differ depending on the car, but what all have in common is that they can anticipate crashes and prepare the car to keep the occupants safe.

Take the example of the rear-end collision from the first page. In a car with a pre-safe system, an alarm might go off as the driver nears the stopped car. At the same time, the pre-safe system might start priming the brakes so that just touching the pedal will apply their full force. While all that's going on, the car will start reducing engine power, which will slow the car and reduce the severity of the crash. Finally, if the system detects that a crash can't be avoided, it will prepare the airbags for deployment and tighten all of the seat belts, keeping occupants safe. What's really amazing is that it will do all that in less time than it takes the driver to slam on the brakes.

Cruise control is another common driverless system that's available in most cars. Cruise control keeps the car at a constant speed, set by the driver, without the driver constantly having to press the gas pedal. Cruise control isn't completely driverless, however, because the driver must watch constantly for slower moving cars in his or her path.

Adaptive cruise control takes care of that. Though it's currently available on only a few cars, it's very simple. Using radar sensors on the front of the car, adaptive cruise control can tell when an object is in front of it and, if the object is moving, how fast it's moving. When cruise control is set, adaptive cruise control will maintain a constant speed, but will also maintain a set distance between it and the car in front of it. That means that if you set adaptive cruise control at 60 miles per hour and come up on a car going 55 miles per hour, adaptive cruise control will automatically decrease your car's speed and maintain a safe distance between the two cars.

Want to go even further into the future? Head to the next page to learn about cars that can park themselves.