My
brother is looking for a new car, and I am helping him with his search. I have
to admit that each time when I am looking at cars I get more and more impressed
because car are really becoming complex interactive systems.
I
was looking for the new Honda accord 2014 which is considered as an affordable
car and I have to say that it is really amazing what features the cars have on
these days.
Besides
the security features that have been around for while (e.g. the body structure
design, anti-lock braking system-ABS Dual-Stage, Multiple-Threshold Front
Airbags – SRS) I saw several functionalities that I found interesting. The
first one was the forward collision warning, which using a camera and radar
system can detect the presence of vehicles in front of the car, and when the
system calculate that the car is at risk alerts the driver. Another feature in
the car is that it also provides a lane departure warning, which can detect
when the driver is changing lines without using the turn signal light, assuming
that this is an unintended line change it alerts the driver. It also provides
what they call the Honda Lane Watch; it is a small camera on the passenger side
that is activated automatically when the driver signal right and it displays
live video on the screen improving the visibility.
Definitely
vehicles are an important representation of useful and attractive user
interfaces with technologies in several areas including driving control,
assisted functions, navigation, information services, etc., that assist the
user in the daily driving experience. 
This is a very interesting topic...especially with all the commercials cropping up all over the television depicting families as beneficiaries of such systems. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), statistics are starting to support that these systems really do reduce car crashes and I can see that there is going to be a big push to move these technologies into the mainstream quickly. I personally haven't seen any of these systems, and much less seen what the interface looks like and how the user would interact with such systems that are primarily designed to take the human "out-of-the-loop".
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