2017 Model Year Cars, Gizmos and Gadgets (link to the Happy Herald)
The 2017 model year vehicles have already hit the pavement bringing many new gizmos and gadgets. If you have not stepped foot into a dealership in quite some time, you will be amazed at how cars have evolved in such a short amount of time.
Dashboards have become increasingly electronic, with even the least expensive models including sophisticated infotainment systems that can wirelessly stream calls, data, and text messages from mobile phones, with many cars and trucks now offering on-board Internet service. While the fully autonomous drive car is still some distance off into the future, several new vehicles offer advanced safety systems that can auto-brake and/or engage the steering to help prevent collisions with other cars, pedestrians – even animals – at both low and high speeds.
Not only is a vehicle your main source of transportation, manufactures aim to make vehicles safer, more capable, and more entertaining than in years past. Technology changes it seems by each passing day, so what do these 2017 vehicles offer. Let’s check out a few of them.
Last year, Cadillac debuted a new video rearview mirror that replaces the conventional mirrored glass surface with an LED screen that displays a wide-angle rearward view uncluttered by heads or headrests in the back seat. For 2017 its availability expands to both Caddy’s new XT5 crossover SUV and the full-electric Chevrolet Bolt. Other 2017 models with novel approaches to around-car monitoring include the Cadillac CT6 luxury sedan with an onboard 360-degree video recorder (anybody paranoid?), and the Ford Super Duty pickup that locates no fewer than seven video cameras around the truck.
Gizmos and Gagets
On-board infotainment/connectivity systems are becoming ever more like full-blown mobile computers with large touch-sensitive displays that recognize swipes and hand gestures to initiate commands, just like a tablet computer. In fact, for 2017, Bentley is including a dual-screen system in its very luxurious Bentayga that features removable twin Android tablets, while the Chrysler Pacifica’s entertainment system includes builtin game apps, and Cadillac’s allows users to stream live TV to their back seat of a CT6 sedan via a Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick. As for Honda, it is letting its pickup buyers bring the party virtually anywhere by turning the truck bed into one enormous audio speaker.
All manufacturers are working hard trying to race to the front of the class bringing with them new and exciting features. So, have they become more concerned about the new gizmos and gadgets, and less about promoting what the vehicle itself has to offer? One begins to wonder where all of this is leading to. It seems years ago, a new car owner was mesmerized by the sleek look of an automobile and cared less about the special features, now I believe car buyers are rushing to dealerships just to see what new on-board toys cars are offering. This includes the foreign car manufacturers as well.
Among the latest safety gear, last year Nissan introduced a new predictive Forward Collision Warning system on the Maxima midsize sedan that that will not only monitor the speed and proximity of the vehicle ahead of it in traffic, but can also keep tabs on the next car or truck in front of it, with auto-braking ready if necessary to avoid or lessen the effects of a possible crash. Availability expands to the redesigned Nissan Armada full-size SUV this fall. Other new safety systems premiering in the Volvo S90 sedan and V90 station wagon include Run- Off Road Mitigation system that helps keep a car from inadvertently running off the side of the road, and an improved City Safety low-speed auto-braking function that helps prevent collisions with other cars, bicyclists, pedestrians, and – for 2017 – large animals like deer and elk that may wander into the vehicle’s path.
So when you are out looking for that next new car, be sure to do your homework and check out all the makes and models in order to make the best choice. Happy Motoring.
