The Jetsons Foretold The Future
Originally posted on September 07, 2015
Remember the cartoon The Jetsons? It aired in 1962-1963 and later in 1985-1987. The cartoon was about a space-age family living in the twenty first century. The Jetsons had a flying car, video calling, LCD television, a robot maid and many other futuristic gadgets. Many of those things are now being utilized by us. Video calling is used today from our computers and cell phones via Skype and various other apps. The slim light weight LCD TV sets seen in the cartoon were put on the market in the early 2000s. Remember, The Jetsons was created in the 1960s. According to various reports, people will soon be able to purchase flying cars and robots will soon be living, working and possibly walking the streets amongst humans.
Flying Cars
In March 2015, AeroMobil CEO Juraj Vaculik revealed that the company is looking to put flying cars on the market by 2017. “We are now scaling up quite fast, building the team, and the plan is that in 2017 we’ll be able to announce the first flying roadster,” Vaculik told CNBC. “The point is not only to showcase that it’s possible to marry together a plane and a car, but to really commercialize it.”
According to the report, AeroMobil’s first model will be a two-seater with a top air speed of 124 miles per hour and the ability to take off and land on grass.
Robots
Boston Dynamics is an engineering and robotics design company that makes robots for the military. According to The Guardian, Boston Dynamics works across a wide range of computer intelligence and simulation systems, as well as large, advanced robotic platforms. The company was created as a technology spin-off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Prof Marc Raibert in 1992, then the founder and lead researcher of the Leg Lab – a research group focused on systems that move dynamically, including legged robots.
The Guardian writes:
“Raibert describes the Boston Dynamics team as “simply engineers that build robots”, but in reality Boston Dynamics is much more than that.
Its robotics work is at the forefront of the technology creating the self-proclaimed “most advanced robots on Earth” particularly focused around self-balancing humanoid or bestial robots.
Funding for the majority of the most advanced Boston Dynamics robots comes from military sources, including the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the US army, navy and marine corps. The terms of contracts currently held by Boston Dynamics with military bodies are unknown, although Google has committed to honouring existing contracts, including recent $10.8m funding from Darpa.”
Hover boards became popular in the U.S. in 2015. The hover board stays on the ground, has wheels and runs on battery. A person controls the movement of the board with their feet and body. Flying hover boards became available for public consumption in 2016. These boards can fly about 1, 000 feet in the air. The Jetsons were often seen standing on a very similar object.
Self Driving Robotic Car
Google kicked off a robotic car project in 2009. It has over ten converted Toyota Priuses that have acquired over 300,000 miles without a single accident on California roads. The robotic cars have cameras and sensors mounted on the rooftop that monitor the road ahead. In 2012, Steve Mahan, who is blind, tested the car in Morgan Hill, CA.
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