I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be a screen in modern vehicles for every purpose.
Need to check how a toddler is doing in the third row seat on the left? Check the screen. Want to play a video game on the passenger side of the car up front? Try the screen right in front of you. A moving, rolling entertainment system, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer Series III doesn’t quite have that many screens, but there are a boatload of them.
The first one I noticed was by accident. When I start testing a car, the first thing I do is throw my bag in the second row seat, and I glance at the center screen. You can adjust climate settings, the fans, and the seat warmers and coolers. It’s tilted up at an angle and I imagined the future of all cars, where we can have a screen for just about any purpose.
In front of the second row seat on both sides is another display for watching movies and TV shows, or playing games. Before I ever even drove the Jeep Grand Wagoneer I punched in my account details for Amazon Prime and sat there watching a show for a bit, with the engine running since I’m old-school and I always think running anything will wear out the battery. (In truth, modern cars shut themselves off automatically to avoid too much battery drain.)
This was all before ever driving this massive SUV.
I also added my Netflix details and browsed a few documentaries. Of course, the sound is amazing. Filling the entire interior, I felt like I should grab a bag of popcorn and lounge around for a while instead of heading to a remote office to do some writing.
Up front, there are more screens. I gravitated to the seat control settings including a graphical display for where all of the seat massage settings are on the seat and what they do. I clicked the “rock climb” setting and sat there again, marveling at all of the luxury and controls available. Oh, that’s right — I need to drive this vehicle around.
Screens in cars have been popping up a lot lately, including the many screens in the Lincoln Navigator and the passenger screens I’ve noticed in the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. The trend makes sense because, when you are driving, there’s really no need to use a phone anymore. Screens can entertain and inform us, while we focus on the road (if we’re driving) or save our phones for later when we need them.
I’m envisioning a future where screens are not just everywhere in our vehicles but also more of them at work, at home, and everywhere we go — not just at the McDonald’s kiosk. I’m talking about screens at crosswalks, screens in the garage, and more screens at our desks. This is already happening of course, with Alexa and Google smart speakers, security systems, and plenty of other products — but it’s going to happen even more.
The Jeep Grand Wagoneer Series III is just a great example of how multiple screens make it easier to go on trips and provide extra safety. The next step after adding all of these screens and voicebots everywhere? Finally: We won’t need our phones as much.
