CNN, in collaboration with mental_floss, has a report on five car technologies that we can expect to be common by the year 2020. While some of today's cars, like the Lexus LS460 and the Mercedes S-Class, can self-park and automatically change lanes, there's a lot more coming down the pike. One such concept allows cars to (sort of) predict the future, such as in analyzing video feeds from intersections to warn drivers about pedestrians, detect stop signs, and monitor weather and traffic to adjust the car's performance.

Other technologies listed in the report include Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) systems that let cars communicate with roads. How would this work? Let's say an ambulance is on an emergency call; that vehicle could alert the "road" it's on, which would then change traffic lights from red to green out of their usual sequence to let the ambulance pass through faster.

Traffic reporting, a current sticking point with today's in-car nav systems because of its inaccuracy, could improve with DSRC as well. Have a look at the report; there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Photo credit: mental_floss