What kind of cars will the grandkids be driving?

Though I enjoy looking at the works of Futurists, I don't put much faith into their predictions. For example, we should be driving hover cars by now with the interstate system covered by traffic control centers like air traffic. We are supposed to be living in biodome-like self-sustaining skyscrapers. I also enjoy laughing at how they always paint the future as fresh, clean and sterile. Jetsons, Star Trek and every 60s era prediction. I believe the future will be more like today or maybe worse as in Blade Runner and The Fifth Element.

Unlike personal computing technology, the automobile industry creeps along and changes only under the pressure of pain (consumer pressure, legislation, etc).

So my 16-year prediction is that cars will still be operaring on some kind of petroleum-based fuel but perhaps closer to E85 in ratio. But that, of course leads to the question of using food as a fuel in a heavily populated world with water restrictions. Battery tech will improve but will it get to the point where a rapid charge (5 minutes) will power a car for 500 miles? Perhaps in 16 years but where will the electricity come from to power those cars plus the energy-hungry homes and businesses. So perhaps the manufacturers will develop hyper-efficient cars, but I doubt that. If we start building right now, we could have mass transit in place for the grandkids, but we don't have the funds for that so it won't happen. Besides, a high speed rail is too exposed and will constantly be the target of attack by people of countries we were and are occupying at any given time.

You said that you didn't want gloom and doom and I'm not trying to go there but in terms of automotive enhancements, I'm leaning more towards the "don't expect much" side of the argument.

 

Hopefully cars become something we use for leisure instead of for commuting. I don't see my city coming up with a mass transit system such as the NY subway or the London Underground but hopefully we can somehow get by with light rail and busses. I'm hoping for a bullet train to take us from coast to coast as long as it's cheaper than an airplane (and most likely less polluting than one. The only "cost" is time). Though I think more likely are metro-to-metro trains like the still-under-consideration Windsor-Toronto-Montreal train. The Rocky Mountains will make it expensive to get a train into anywhere in B.C.

For personal transport, I would think smaller cars will be in style BUT that doesn't mean cramped spaces. We downsized from the 60s/70s and our full-size cars are just as spacious with a similar or even bigger boot. With advancement in technologies, we'll be able to provide more passenger space with the same footprint thanks to better packaging. The Prius is a prime example of this (and I always like to say that fuel isn't the only thing the Prius is efficient in; space is another). It's smaller than a Corolla yet more spacious inside. The Yaris and Fit are other examples. Imagine that battery technology has advanced such that only a 1.0 litre engine is necessary to give the 2036 Prius the same performance as it does now. You can stuff a 1.0 litre engine anywhere.

Making cars EV or fuel-cell will free up even more space.

Wow, my post ended up a lot longer than expected lol.