All braced up for your next road trip? Oil and filling up the tank: check, location: check, snacks for the route: check. But what about the smart tech and connected apps that make your road trips safer and protect your car during the journey? Wondering how they help?
Well, these stats will help you understand. According to reports, accidents would decline 90% by 2050, and the credit for it goes to smart tech and apps for making this possible.
Want to know how exactly these innovations help make your journey safer and more risk-free? This post would tell you exactly that, from the role of smart car tech to cloud based maintenance logs and data sync, stay tuned to learn how it all falls into place.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Smart cars make road trips safer with sensors and assistant tools.
- Vehicle health monitoring app, Navigation and traffic apps, Emergency assistance apps, and Weather alerts are some must-have mobile apps for road travel.
- Social media communities can guide you on the journey.
- GPS and Dash cams can be a life saver during trips.
- Cloud based maintenance logs make it easier to store data.
In this era, when almost everything has the ‘smart’ tag with modernisation, how could cars stay behind? Modern vehicles are now equipped with sensors and assistance tools that once felt futuristic and could only be seen in movies.
Remember how Tony Stark’s car systems in the Iron Man movies talked to him? Well, cars today are not exactly that but they are slowly catching up to that kind of smart assistance. Lane-keep systems, blind-spot warnings, and road condition alerts, not only make driving tenfold easier but also play a major role in preventing accidents.
For those who wish to get smart diagnostics and digital service updates on their vehicles before starting their road journey, Silverstone Auto Spa could do the job for you.
FUN FACT
Nearly 70% of road trip travellers now rely on at least three different apps while driving. The most common ones are navigation, music and one for car safety and monitoring.
Your safety is in your hands, quite literally. Because your smartphone can become your most valuable travel tool. Here is a list of some useful apps you should install on your mobile to ensure a safe journey:
Mobile apps can anticipate problems and warn you before they become major issues, saving your whole trip.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Reddit can help you connect with people who have first-hand experiences of the route you’re going to cover. Not only that, you can also find dedicated travel communities on these platforms that can update you about the road quality, fuel stops, rest areas, local rules, or toll charges. They might even give you some troubleshooting tips for common car issues.
GPS trackers can be a life saver. Fortunately, these are no longer a luxury meant only for expensive cars. Now they are affordable, compact, and easy to install. A GPS tracker can help you in the following ways during a journey:

We never know when a joyous trip takes a wrong turn and end up in some unfortunate event. To support you during it, dash cams serve as a digital witness. Advanced models offer front and rear recording, motion detection while parked, cloud uploads for important clips, and night vision and wide-angle views.
Some cameras can even be directly linked to your phone and send you notifications if someone bumps into your vehicle or tries to break in. Not only this, but these camera footages prove to be a valuable element when claiming insurance for accidents.
Tracking car maintenance can turn into a challenge real quick. Things often get mixed up, service papers in the glove box, receipts stuffed in the drawers and reminders that easily slip your mind. To solve this issue, cloud based maintenance logs store all this information in one digital folder, be it in your mobile or laptop.
This organized approach can help you easily track upcoming services, share health reports with your mechanic, access records from any device, maintain better resale value, and send automatic updates from car sensors.
Road trip safety is not the same as it was a few years ago. With each passing year, something new and better makes its place in the market, taking everything to a whole new level with each update. In the future we can expect even better innovations, we might see AI-predictive maintenance, cars that auto-diagnose and schedule repairs on its own, a fully connected highway with real-time hazard alerts, and whatnot. The possibilities are endless.
The undefeated mixture of automotive engineering and tech will continue to present something new to us and making road trips safer and more enjoyable than ever.
A connected car or a smart car is a vehicle equipped with advanced technology that allows it to communicate with other vehicles, the internet, and external devices.
The 30-6-90 rule for cars states that car needs key checkups when the cross 30,000, 60,000, and 90,000 miles.
Yes, it is possible to track your car with your phone. Apps like FindMycar help with it.
Some essential things you must keep in car before a road trip are a first-aid kit, spare tire, jumper cables, and basic car tools for emergencies.