Tomorrow's world: Driving the car of 2015

Just a normal day...

You're running out of milk. You know that because the fridge has told your mobile phone, so your mobile has messaged you. No problem - it's lunchtime and you're sick of being in the office anyway. Good excuse to get out.

So you put your phone in your pocket and head out. 'Where did you I park, again?' Ah, no matter - the phone can help out again, so you open up the GPS application and ask it where the MINI is. It shows you; you get in.

A quick chat

"Good afternoon, sir. Decent morning?" You don't respond, mainly because you haven't had a decent morning, but also because talking to your car still seems a bit alien and silly - and has done for the past five years." And where are we off to today?" asks a second voice, this time an over-chirpy girl.

"Somewhere racy, I'll bet," chimes in a third, pseudo-Australian male. That's the 'engine', which despite spending his every minute with nothing but the car for company, still seems remarkably happy to interact with 'her'. You ignore his hypothesising too, turning your attention to the globe in the centre of the dashboard. By waggling your finger about inside the laser-projected 3D ball of light, you mark out a playlist of songs from a bunch of your favourite bands arranged in the 'map' floating above the gearstick. You start with Michael Jackson (whose fifth posthumous album of previously unheard material has just been released).

Let's get going

"Engine start," you command, and it does. Jacko's new song also starts up, and the car, because it knows you need milk (your phone has told it), offers you a number of possible outlets to buy your semi-skimmed - each 'floating' in the dome. "Sainsbury's," you say. "Good choice, captain," replies the car, and your guidance starts.

You pull away slowly. A full colour head-up display appears right in front of you, offering direction arrows to your destination, a mini-map and the speed limit of the road ahead. You flick your indicator to turn out of the car park, but instead of a steady tick-tock pulse, you're treated to the sound of Jacko himself human beat-boxing in perfect rhythm to the track. It drops out again once you've turned, but as you speed up to 30mph, the intensity of the track rises, gradually adding layers - bass, drums - as your speed increases.

Celebrity heaven

It's hot, so you dial the air conditioning down to its iciest setting, but doing so triggers a familiar voice: "Sham-on!" It's Jackson again. See, not only has this latest MJ album been specially released with full MINI 'Dynamic Music' compatibility, the King of Pop's voice also features as part of the MINI Connected Buddy 'Pop Superstars' pack; hit the hazard lights and Peter Andre might well tell you 'that's insania, dude!' Oh no.

Minutes later and you're on the dual carriageway. Your song is in full swing now, but you're bored with it; you fancy hearing some good, old-fashioned engine noise. Off goes the radio, and the little button marked 'revvy' on the dashboard gets a press. All of a sudden the fairly mundane brum-brum of your 90mpg small capacity turbo petrol motor is replaced by a yowling V8 scream, and you instantly feel you're going 30mph faster. Amazing.

Traffic problems - they still exist!

One mile down the road, though, and you get an alert: the centre globe is flashing red - there's a traffic jam ahead, and the car knows it because another MINI is stuck there - they've 'talked' to each other. No worries - you can go to Tesco instead using the diversion you're already being shown on your 3D map.

Ten minutes later and you're there. You pull into a space, but before you can get out of the car a 'ping' tells you there's a new video waiting for you, which you can watch now if you want. It's the latest edition of Come Dine With Me, which you missed the night earlier, so told your car to download overnight. BMW's 'Connected Drive' system is responsible, which debuted in the 7 Series back in 2011 but has filtered down to the MINI. You decide to buy some lunch and eat it in the car so you can watch an estate agent from Sunderland burning a crème brûlée. Perfect.

Tea cosies and televisions

And while you're sat, your engine is being kept warm because it's insulated by what's essentially a large tea-cosy: if your car is started up warm it will use at least ten percent less fuel during your short journey back to work than if the engine is allowed to cool down. It's called Intelligent Heat Management.

When you're done with the video, you put your 'Ergo Seat' back into driving position - closer to the wheel - and pull away. The seat is based on a bendable 'backbone' structure that adapts to the shape of your back, making it both more supportive and comfortable than the seats of old. It's safer too, because the spring effect of the one-piece back section means it will make contact with your head quickly in the event of a crash, countering whiplash.

You've spent too long watching banal cooking programmes and now you've run past your lunch hour. A few years ago that would have been a problem - but not now. Mercifully, your car is 'talking' to the traffic lights it knows you're about to run through, relaying the information back to you so you know when they'll be green and can adjust your speed accordingly. This sort of active traffic light management isn't designed to make life quicker, but rather to save fuel as part of BMW's EfficientDynamics programme by improving traffic flow during peak times. It speeds you up though, and you get back only a few minutes late.

You forgot the milk! That's the one thing that car can't do for you. Maybe in 2020?

Mark Nichol