Adaptive windshield wiping? Shit, I'm just hoping automatic headlights become standard. I had two Camaros, one from the late 90s and one from 2002. They both had auto lights.
My 2008 Prius? Nope. My sister has a 2007 Honda Odyssey, no auto lights either. How much difficulty is it to add a damn photosensor and a switch?
The next "latest and greatest" thing out now (or soon) is a system by some of the luxury car makers (I think Audi and/or BMW?): "smart lighting" headlight systems.
Basically, instead of just a headlight bulb with hi and low beams, they use a single bulb (probably LED) and a TI micro-mirror array, controlled by a computer-vision (and other sensors) system to control the headlights to do some pretty amazing stuff:
* adaptive high-beams - lighting only the areas that need it
* auto-highlighting road-side obstacles (like animals or pedestrians or cars)
* placing "signage" at the feet of pedestrians to warn them
* highlighting of signs (and only the signs) with high-beams
Imagine the car steering the beams where needed, when needed - brightening things for your attention, dimming areas that are unwanted (oncoming traffic, for instance - to keep from blinding the other drivers), placing other information on the roadway as needed (for you and/or pedestrians), etc.
I think right now it is still a "beta idea" - still being developed. It seems plausible, but it might be something that proves too complex to be practical. The other downside of it (maybe the greatest downside) is that replacing bulbs (not too mention the module!) is probably going to ultra-super expensive.
Of course, most of these luxury cars already have a "service position" of "remove the entire front portion of the car" (or, if doing something interior, "remove the entire dashboard") - which already puts you into the several-hundred dollar repair cost range before anything is done...
several-hundred dollar repair cost range before anything is done
That's the key. Whenever I read about all these new features I just think it's one more thing that will inevitably break.
And then when it breaks, it's more expensive to fix. E.g. the alternator on my BMW X5 went out. Fine, shit happens. But when I had it replaced I found out its water cooled. Which simply makes the repair that much more expensive.
It seems that all luxury cars are like that. They're engineered more for the repair business than for anything else.
Modern systems are more complex than that. My '15 Mazda3 has them, and it's done using a forward-looking camera. The camera looks for oncoming white light, or red light, so it'll keep the high beams on (usually) even when there's reflections from signs, but turn them off for the car driving in front of you, or of course for any oncoming cars.
Your photosensor system probably won't dim the lights for cars driving in front of you, as the red tail lights likely aren't bright enough, and now you're irritating the people you're following.
Its honestly annoying af. I had them on a previous car and had issues. The newer systems are better, but how hard is it to flick a switch? Are we too lazy to turn on the lights now? Maybe driving is too much trouble and fuss for some people.
My 2008 Prius? Nope. My sister has a 2007 Honda Odyssey, no auto lights either. How much difficulty is it to add a damn photosensor and a switch?