If you’ve noticed, within the last 10 years, the automotive industry has progressed significantly in many areas including improved safety, performance, emissions and even styling. Along with these improvements are a combination of eco-friendly and technology-jammed cars.

As manufacturers are creating more fuel-efficient cars, other alternative fuels are coming out. Car companies with electric cars like Ford, Nissan and especially Tesla are gaining popularity by the minute, releasing cars that run solely on electricity.

Overall, there are many people who are wary of electric power because many cars are still in prototype stages, lack strong performance, look bad and are priced incredibly high. Tesla cars counter this worry by having an overall five-star safety rating, good styling and strong performance. The Tesla model S, the company’s flagship sedan, can accelerate from 0-60 in under six seconds. Tesla even boasts about having a “frunk,” or front trunk, because there is no engine. The only letdown is the starting price of $58,000.

Formula 1 racing is also starting to create electric racing cars. There’s even a whole new racing series, the Formula E series, exclusively with electric cars. A collaboration of car companies (Spark Racing, McLaren Electronic Systems, Williams Advanced Engineering, Dallara and Renault) unveiled the first electric Formula 1 racing car, the Spark Renault SRT-01. Even though it’s not gas powered, it can still pack a punch; the Spark can hit 0-60 in less than three seconds.

Hydrogen powered cars like the Toyota FCV concept and Honda FCX are being considered the “cars of the future” because they don’t consume electricity or gas, only hydrogen. Both of these cars have a hydrogen fuel cell that solely emits water.

Now, to some cool technology feats. One recent advancement is Audi’s concept of a new self-driving car. Audi is already testing this in two of their models, the A6 Avant and the RS7-Sportback. These cars show strong dominance in the technology department for cars. They use ultrasonic radar sensors and video cameras to maintain a safe distance and apply the brakes when necessary. This is great when stuck in traffic. Various laws will have to be updated worldwide in order to make it legal for automated cars to be out on the open road. Car manufactures and suppliers are already forming working groups to address the topics and work with governments.

Also, if you’re in the mall and are to lazy to fetch your car, no worries. With a little touch of the button on your smartphone, the car will locate your location and drive to you. To add to this, if you don’t think you can fit in that parking spot, you can just park the car next to the spot, and the car will do the magic for you. So if you’re willing to drop a cool $45,000 (or more) on an Audi equipped with this technology, then go right ahead and go for it!

Another recent advancement is Mercedes-Benz’s “Crash Avoidance Technology.” The goal of Crash Avoidance Technology is to prevent drowsy driving by having adaptive headlights (which improve night vision around corners and curves), forward collision warnings, emergency brake assistance, lane departure warnings and blind spot detections. On the highway, the car is capable of driving itself by braking if it’s too close to a car and staying in its lane. Mercedes-Benz uses cameras to detect where the lines on the road are. Also, Mercedes uses light detection to detect vehicles, similarly to the Audi. Mercedes is now making Crash Avoidance Technology standard in every new Mercedes to prevent some of the 100,000 accidents caused by drowsy driving each year.

All this new technology in cars is awesome because it makes driving easier and less stressful. But, when it comes to pure skill on the road, do you think people will start to rely on this technology and slowly languish their driving capabilities? The car industry is booming, and I can only wonder what cars will look like in the next 10 years.