The technology in the dashboard: a drone in flight to prevent obstacles

We had fun aiming forward, in a future that has as its goal 100% electric, and which began its journey already in mid-2020 with Renegade and Compass plug-in hybrids, followed by the rechargeable hybrid for hard off-road and pure from the Wrangler 4xe. But power is not the novelty, although here too there is no lack of high-tech innovation, such as the possibility of having four autonomous motors, one per wheel, which will free up the front engine compartment, transforming it into a trunk and recovering space for passengers. in the back. The 80-year commemorative video goes as far as imagining innovations between now and 2030 (and beyond, with a complete, amphibious vehicle), and anticipates a host of new features perhaps not as far away as they seem at first glance. Thanks to the Multi-Power Port the car can be transformed into a field generator, and you can also transfer the charge from one vehicle to another if necessary. Useful in the city, life-saving in off-road situations, away from charging centers. Even if this eventuality becomes more remote: Jeep is already working on a network of solar-powered off-road charging stations along the most popular routes in North America. Goodbye to the keys: you will be able to get into your vehicle thanks to the biometric recognition, which exceeds all the recent innovations in the field of access (from the key integrated in the smartphone to the bracelets with RFID technology) and which will use high definition cameras to authorize pre-registered people, a bit like the unlocking system of facial recognition smartphones. The timeline proposed by Jeep assumes this feature available as early as 2025. And the hypothesis of connecting the car to a drone is also realistic, which will be able to transmit the images taken on the dashboard screen, both to record and document the route, and how “Explorer” to identify any difficulties and obstacles in advance. Just as there doesn’t seem to be much missing from the arrival of intelligent tires capable of dynamically modifying the pressure according to the terrain. More aspirational is the final image of the couple lying on the reclining seats looking at the stars from the roof as the car takes them along mountain trails. At a time when, after the initial enthusiasm, autonomous city driving still seems a distant goal, the proposal to move it off-road appears decidedly ambitious. Yet in the video we see the protagonists leave for an excursion on foot and find the car waiting for them, which made the turn on off-road roads to be ready for arrival. And to check it along the way, smart glasses connected to the cameras of the car will suffice. Jeep has clearly refrained from making promises, and has indeed made it clear with a disclaimer that in the video they were showing you imaginative concepts and equipment, and that future models may be different from what was presented. But the reality is that many of the technologies imagined are already feasible, at least on paper, and it is not so unthinkable to hope to find them soon on the new off-road vehicles.