Societal development owes much to the evolution of transportation: as human mobility increased over the centuries, small towns became cities, continents were discovered, and the Moon welcomed Earth-made boots. In recent decades, the automobile has shaped how and where humanity has resided and freed us to travel far and wide, to work farther than walking distance from our homes and to transport goods across great distances. But the car has always been much more than just a transportation aid — it's always been in many ways a status symbol, an outward projection of the owner's personality, taste, and lifestyle. One century ago an automobile could be owned only by the elite; now it is nearly our default mode of transport and consistently one of the most significant purchases a person will ever make. And so we are proud of our cars: we perform regular maintenance, wash them, wax them, upgrade engine parts and wheels and repaint them, display them at car shows or while driving around town; we sing about them, make movies about them, take pictures of them. Ours is a car culture through and through; each of us is deeply influenced by the vehicles we drive. But car culture influence is really a two way street, as it were.
Automobile evolution affects the population in remarkable ways; in turn our culture influences cars — their design, mechanicals, accouterment and more — directly and meaningfully. In recent decades our environmental awareness has skyrocketed, and in turn automakers began increasing the fuel efficiency of their products by reducing size and weight, offering smaller, more efficient engines and introducing hybrid and diesel power trains. More recently, thanks to the World Wide Web, it's come to pass that people are increasingly "connected" to information and to each other, and so cars feature ways to tether phones wirelessly and even feature custom in-car-only apps. And of course the result of certain influences wears off as cultural fads fade away — plaid-upholstered cars are scant nowadays, and when was the last time you saw a tail fin? The consumer/car relationship is a healthy symbiosis: as our culture becomes more globally connected, as our tastes shift, and as we demand more technology, comfort and convenience in our everyday lives, so too will the vehicles we own shift to accommodate the needs and best interest of the consumer. To see the car of tomorrow, we need only look at the trends of today.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com
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