Mercedes shows off the company’s latest autonomous vehicle concepts
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we watch the future of autonomous transportation evolve automotive companies are now experimenting with new business models and product concepts. As more vehicles, from cars to aircraft and everything in between, become electric and autonomous Mercedez Benz decided a while ago that it...
Elon Musk unveils the future of urban transport, and living on Mars
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Urban transportation is often a nightmare of clogged and congested roads, Musk believes he has a solution, and it’s going underground. Elon Musk unveiled his vision for the Boring Company last night with the unveiling of the company’s first 12 ft wide test tunnel...
Scientists 3D print Lithium Ion batteries for the first time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to 3D print batteries means we can create batteries in all shapes and sizes which will be useful for all our new gadgets. Recently I’ve been reporting on a variety of new battery developments, from polymer batteries that can charge your electric...
ORNL wireless charging breakthrough unplugs electric vehicles from the grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we won’t have to plug our electric cars into superchargers, we’ll charge them wirelessly at home and when we’re travelling. I’ve been saying for some time now during my keynotes, like the ones recently at GITEX in Dubai, and RWE in...
Hyundai unveils the worlds first car with a solar power panoramic roof
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future electric cars won’t solely be reliant on Lithium Ion batteries, as battery technology and new materials evolve we’ll see the emergence of battery-less electric vehicles. If you ever watch one of my keynotes on the Future of Transportation, like the one...
A creative AI designed NASA’s next spider-like interplanetary lander
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As humans we tend to believe that creativity is our exclusive domain, but AI is muscling in in a big way, and creative machines are improving all the time. Over the past couple of years I’ve been banging the drum, through my articles and...
Second hand electric vehicle batteries help Engie accelerate renewable energy uptake
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Renewable energy is clean and green, but when the sun goes down and the wind drops energy output falls, which means sustainable renewable energy needs grid scale battery storage to support it. Multinational energy utility Engie has launched a new grid connected storage project...
Breakthrough carbon fiber battery could usher in batteryless electric vehicles
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our understanding of how to turn mundane objects and materials into batteries increases in the future anything and everything could be a battery. As I discussed a little while ago Carbon Fiber is going through its own little revolution, firstly it can now...
Futurist Keynote, Dubai: The Future of Urban Mobility 2040, GITEX
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The rate and pace of change is accelerating, and in the next two decades the transportation industry will change more than it has in the past thousand years. Last year I was writing about the goings on and unveilings, for example, of Dubai’s first...
A powerful battery breakthrough from MIT could usher in electric planes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The airline industry is one of the world’s heaviest polluters and it’s getting worse as air travel increases, electric aircraft will reverse that trend. Over the past year or so I’ve been discussing the eventual emergence of fully electric aircraft and sky taxis, such...
Rolls Royce unveil their new flying taxi
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more companies pile into the flying taxi market it’s increasingly likely that you’ll start seeing them appear in cities near you, kickstarting the next transportation revolution. British engine maker Rolls Royce revealed its plans this week to develop a hybrid electric vehicle, dubbed...
World’s first commercial solar aircraft aims for the Stratosphere
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tomorrow’s aircraft will be battery powered, but future generations of aircraft could do away with the batteries entirely. While Elon Musk is invested in getting humans to different places, whether it’s from one side of the planet to the other in rocketships, or to...
Roborace’s fully autonomous race car prepares to pound the track at FoS
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future our sports events could be dominated by robot and drone warriors battling it out for supremacy, and at some point this could present companies with a new market opportunity. Later this week, the world’s first autonomous race car company Roborace will make history...
New battery technology triples the ranges of electric vehicles
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the world starts to move away from fossil fuels we need to find new ways to squeeze more power from our batteries, and innovations like this one help us achieve that. In the latest battery breakthrough claim researchers from the University of Waterloo...
It’s raining cash, US startup edges closer to creating solid state “Jesus” battery
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Solid state batteries charge faster, , don’t catch fire, last longer and and are cheaper to make than their liquid Lithium Ion cousins, making them a game changer. Recently technology giants like Dyson, Samsung and Total have collectively invested $65 million in Ionic Materials, a company...
VW pledges to build a huge supercharger network across the US
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Unless you’d been asleep at the wheel recently you can’t help but notice that it looks like the days of the combustion engine are numbered and that electric vehicles are the future… It’s no secret that Volkswagen wants to sell more electric cars in...
Lamborghini’s futuristic all electric, self healing hyper car won’t have batteries
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s likely that our flirtation with battery packs in cars won’t last as long as we think as new wirelessly charged cars start emerging, and as new materials let the cars themselves become the batteries. Lamborghini and MIT recently introduced the Terzo Millennio concept, which...
Mystery car company partners with WiTricity to bring wirelessly charged EV’s to market
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As governments and organisations around the world race to install new plug in electric vehicle charging stations, manufacturers, are already thinking ahead and they’ll be bringing wirelessly charged cars to the market sooner than anyone thinks. A new electric car that uses wireless charging...
Futurist keynote, Milton Keynes: The Future of Communities, Castleton European Summit
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future will have a huge impact on the future of communities, both good and bad, but with proper foresight and planning tomorrow’s communities could be brighter and better for everyone. Firstly, I’d like to thank Jay and Chantel for inviting me to present...
US DoE wants to use AI to build world’s first autonomous energy grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to fully automate the American energy grid could reduce regulatory burden, improve resilience and reliability, and make it more efficient. The US Department of Energy, whose supercomputers are already building their own AI’s, has announced it will explore a first of a...
