One of the best films of all time has got to be Back to the Future ll. Made nearly twenty years ago, it's interesting to see how the filmmaker envisioned the future of cars as flying machines taking over the skyline. But as we near the future, just how might it turn out for Ford?
As a child watching Back to the Future ll it was exciting to see how cars might end up as vehicles lifting up off of the ground and into the air. But could cars really ever become the replacement for planes and how would that affect peoples' Ford car insurance? Would motorists start making motor insurance claims for cars dropping out of the sky?
There have been a number of revolutionary developments in the world of car manufacturing over the last hundred years and so it would be very interesting to see just exactly how the future of the automotive industry might continue to develop. Movies have always tried to depict the possibilities of the future but none more so than the 80s cult classic Back to the Future.
In the second of the trilogy, we see an era where people no longer pull out into traffic but lift off into a sky highway. When the young Marti asks the Doc how they're going to make a top speed of 80mph on such a short road, the Doc replies "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." Just as he says the famous tagline, the pair wiz off and come face to face with an aeroplane. Luckily the Doc swerves the vehicle just in time.
Apart from this close encounter, there's no mention of anybody making a claim on their Ford car insurance in the film so maybe the idea of flying cars is a safe one. In reality, experiments have been carried out on creating a new vehicle that will no longer require the use of a human to operate its controls. Further tests will be carried out on a range of cars at the end of 2007 in America, where vehicles, such as the VW Golf trial car "Lux", will be given set course to complete at a top speed on 30mph.
According to Volker Willhoef, technical leader and engineer for the VW Golf trial car, "The toughest part will be navigating in traffic. The car needs to be able to handle junctions when other vehicles are there and have right of way, and it also has to cope if other drivers don't obey the rules of the road."
For years we've been lead to believe that cars could one day have minds of their own. Even children have witnessed this marvel in the creation of a daytime programme Brum, which sees a car drive itself from one exciting place to another. According to the BBC's official website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies) "Brum always comes to the rescue, either saving a falling statue, catching a falling rock or booting out the baddies!" Perhaps this is where the leading experts of today based their research for the new driverless cars.
But this isn't the only car that Ford car insurance customers have witnessed coming alive. The hit TV show Night Rider and the classic film Herbie have both shown us the possibility of vehicles existing with their own personalities. In the television series Knight Rider, David Hasselhoff plays the role of a modern day knight who drives a car that has artificial intelligence, otherwise known as KITT. Not only could KITT driver itself but the car also had a sense of humour and often delivered sarcastic one-liners to Hasselhoff's character.
In the classic Disney film Herbie, cinema audiences were able to see what would happen if a Volkswagen Beetle could drive itself from town to town. In each one of the movies made, a character recognises these qualities and Herbie is entered into an automobile racing competition. In the most recent making of the film Herbie: Fully Loaded, Lindsay Lohan plays the lead character who takes the car under her wing.
With so many films and TV programmes depicting a reality where cars can talk and have the ability to drive themselves from one place to another, it comes as no surprise that car manufactures are now looking to the future in a bid to create the first real car that can drive without a human to control it.
Hopefully the new technology will make our Ford car insurance premiums even cheaper.