Transportation 2045

Back in the 2020s, the tech industry started talking about transportation as a service (TaaS). Instead of owning and operating your own car or even your own bicycle, you told an app where you needed to go, then used a network of shared wheeled things to get there. What started with companies like Lyft and Uber led to Ryde, the company that won the TaaS war in U.S. cities.

After decades of controversies and fatalities, we’re still years away from completely eliminating the need for a human behind the wheel, but leaps in autonomous driving technology led to one specific advantage that Ryde is now deploying: When the vehicle operator (VO) ends their shift and there are no occupants, vehicles can safely deliver themselves to recharging and cleaning warehouses. Before this level of autonomy, the VO had to park conveniently close to home, taking up space in already congested areas. Now that the vehicle can move itself, it can be idle conveniently far away from a city center. After cleaning and recharging, the car finds the VO, then places itself strategically close to passengers headed to a common destination. The type of vehicle you order can vary depending on users’ plans. Commuting? Sit around a shared work surface. Weekend? Join other standing passengers on a bus with a food stand or retail space.

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Ryde sells itself as “multi-modal,” which means that if the roadways fail due to traffic, you have alternatives. Depending on your route, Ryde may direct you to one of its bicycles that will get you to a ferry, then another bicycle that takes you home. For traveling farther, there are supersonic flights and subterranean trains, but those methods remain expensive and inflexible. Ryde makes slower travel so accommodating to productivity and leisure that most passengers consider the travel time almost inconsequential. For the urbanite holdouts with a car subscription, we, too, hope there will always be places to drive ourselves.

Kemp Remillard

How to Hitch a Ryde

For all the drawbacks of monopolies, the recent merger of the two largest transportation companies into the, uh, überservice Ryde finally gave us a consistent method for moving around cities. Here’s how it works and how to use it.

If there is traffic, Ryde recommends electric bicycles or light-rail alternatives.

HOW TO RYDE

Give the app access to your contacts, calendar, and location. The more information it has, the better it gets at knowing where to pick you up, how to most efficiently move you, and whether you want to ride in a group or pay extra to go solo.

Leave something behind in one of the cars? A Ryde vehicle’s interior cameras can sense items within the cabin. Confirm that it’s yours, and the vehicle will plan a meeting point for you to retrieve it.

Transponders in Ryde’s bicycles allow you to find them quickly, even if the last rider set it out of sight.

Cars deploy to areas of anticipated demand, like apartments populated by employees traveling the same direction.

Larger vehicles carry groups traveling short distances, and can be outfitted for food or drink stands. Just before the holidays, you might get one with a small shop.

Users can pay extra to travel alone, with amenities like active noise-cancellation and virtual-reality headsets.

Safe autonomy is achieved by sensors both inside the vehicle and on the road. These relay information between roadway operators and other vehicles, preventing collisions and optimizing travel paths.

After dropping off the operator, autonomous vehicles go to warehouses outside the city for cleaning and recharging, resulting in fewer vehicles parked in congested areas.

Kemp Remillard

Whatever Happened To...

Flying Cars: It comes up once every few years: Where’s my flying car? In the century-­plus that this publication has been asking that question, the answer today is the same as it was in the late 2010s. That’s when Google cofounder Larry Page’s company Kitty Hawk was conducting test flights. When Uber had hired a vertical-­takeoff-and-landing expert away from NASA. When even Aston Martin had a concept car. But the issues haven’t changed. Moving people around in flying pods is loud, dangerous, and too expensive for all except a select few citizens of each city. Which is why, for now at least, terrestrial transportation is still the fastest way to get around a city. Check back next year!

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Inductive Charging Roads: Back in 2017, Qualcomm built a 328-foot stretch of road in France capable of charging an electric car with 20 kilowatts of power at 62 mph. Qualcomm says, however, that dynamic electric vehicle charging (DEVC) is part of the company’s R&D division and doesn’t have confirmed plans to implement it elsewhere. The idea, while excellent Reddit fodder, still feels a long way away, even in 2045.

Security 2045

Kemp Remillard

The Compliant Civilian’s Guide to Surveillance Cameras

Sauron Pod™: This 8K 360-degree camera is an evolution of the connected video systems cities first used in the early 2000s. But those were a flip phone compared to the S-Pod! This rig can scan faces, clothing, facial tattoos, and other identifiers so well that the algorithms that process the images are now at 50 percent accuracy for correctly identifying a pedestrian. The software it runs can even alert officers to someone fidgeting suspiciously, then follow him or her through the city.

Sound Seers™: These acoustic sensors listen for audio that indicates a weapon is being activated and about to be used, supplementing the S-Pod’s visuals.

Drones: Federal law enforcement can now take control of civilian drones, including the camera feed. Every bit helps!

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3D Face Scanners: Anyone old enough to re-member the Apple iPhone X will recognize this. These modules send out infrared light that maps the unique facial characteristics of passersby, providing an additional, unobtrusive layer of accuracy when keeping eyes on a city’s inhabitants. They even work on pets!

Auto Grabbers™: Modern vehicles are packed with sensors and data, useful for passenger safety, fuel efficiency, and surveillance. These antennas pull information about where a vehicle is headed and who is inside. Look for them the next time you’re walking near passing traffic!

Meanwhile in 2018: New York City

Pacific Press

For NYPD Counterterrorism Chief Jim Waters, the most effective police force is the most informed.

In 1990, there were 2,250 murders, of 527,000 indexed crimes—rape, robbery, assault, larceny. Last year, it’s less than 300 murders and, for the first time, less than 100,000 indexed crimes.

Part of the reason why: We have 15,000 cameras that go to the Watch Command Center. The newer cameras are crystal clear. But no one can look at 15,000 cameras. So we have video analytics that can alert us if a car is going the wrong way on a one-way street, if someone is in an area where no one should be. And cameras are linked to ShotSpotters, acoustic sensors that register the sound of a gunshot, so we can look at the footage from that location and time. If we’re doing an investigation, our license-plate readers can tell us where the car has been and the owner’s travel patterns. When answering 911 calls, other records go to our phones. How many complaint reports have been made at this residence? Has the owner been arrested or have a warrant? Before you leave the car, you know if this might be a violent situation.

Privacy concerns? We hold video for 30 days. On day 31, if there’s no reason to keep it for evidence, it’s gone. You cannot retrieve it. License-plate data, we hold for five years. And we put the cameras up with a big NYPD logo. It’s not looking in your living-room window.

Your Stuff in 2045

Kemp Remillard

The idea of EDC originated as insurance against a society that was possibly crumbling. In today’s digital city, it’s a set of things that helps you make sense of a society that’s definitely overwhelming.



Leatherman: Besides a knife for opening Amazon Alpha Prime boxes, this version has a pentalobe screwdriver for fixing small devices—swapping batteries, etc.

Ray-Ban AR Wayfarer: When the information layer can be just as overwhelming and inscrutable as the street parking signs you sometimes still see in landmarked districts, a pair of good shades is crucial. The RBAR app lets you select what types of information you see—food and drink or public transit options, for example. (Think of sailors wearing sunglasses of different tints depending on the water they’ll be out on.) Plus, these still shade your eyes from the sun.

Bose SoundSight 35 Headphones: An alternate way to cope with augmented reality, especially if glasses are inconvenient, like in the rain: audio. Location tracking and accelerometers mean that you can look toward a building, and the voice assistant will tell you the hours that restaurant is open. Use skull vibration cancellation for especially loud environments.

Yeti Ionoprinted Mug: Since the disposable-cup ban, it’s been crucial to have a cup with you. This is the best one out there: It’s the size and shape of a credit card, until you use Bluetooth to give it a small jolt of electricity, which folds it into shape.

Mophie Battery: Public inductive charging mats are (still) slow. One of these will get your devices through the day.

Faraday Bag: A cloth case woven with material that blocks all radio signals. In a city covered with wireless service, stashing your devices in one of these is the only way to truly check out.

Dyson Personal Cool: Most cities are now officially unbearable during the summer. Personal a/c is a must. This device makes a halo of cool around your body, with a retro design of the company’s room fans from the 2010s.

Energy 2045

Kemp Remillard

Texas has joined the Union! After years of contentious negotiations, the country’s king of renewable energy has agreed to fully link its Texas-only electric infrastructure to the rest of the country: For the first time, the continental U.S. will have one unified power grid. With Texas coming into the fold, leadership in both the House and Senate have said they’re fast-tracking bills to mandate a rapid rollout of what they’re charmingly calling ANGEL (Automated Next-Generation Energy Localization)—load-balancing and risk-distributing technologies that work best with more people on the grid producing more power from more sources. About one quarter of the country—mainly people in the newest housing units—already live with some of the changes we can expect, barring some kind of Texit disaster. Herein, a guide for the rest of us. (And a few tips that even the people already living in the future can benefit from.)

The Microgrid

What It Is: A system that links you and the power generated by your home with your neighbors and the power generated by their homes (and maybe local businesses or other nearby buildings).

Why It Matters: As long as you’ve got a way of producing your own power, like rooftop or window solar, you are now a power company. That not only makes you money, it keeps the utility from having to fire up a giant plant just because your neighbors all want to charge their ­Teslas. Plus, if there’s an emergency for the national grid, your microgrid can disconnect and run independently until problems are resolved.

How to Get Started: If you’re not on a microgrid, call your utility and find out when you can get on one. If you already are, legally you should have a map of the properties you’re connected to and an upgraded electric meter with a command module showing the type and source of electrons flowing into your home.

Transactive Energy

What it is: An algorithmic method for managing the grid. Individual devices will tell the grid how much the homeowner is willing to pay to operate them (for example, you may be willing to pay more for air conditioning on a hotter day), then the grid will look at all the inputs from all the homeowners and calculate a price that will meet everyone’s needs while balancing generation and demand. (This price will change constantly.)

Why it matters: It makes energy cheaper—both because competition will drive prices down, and because we’ll efficiently use the infrastructure we have, instead of paying to build more.

How to get started: Inventory your major appliances. Transactive-­compliant devices bear a stylized TE logo next to the Energy Star icon. Then the onerous part: configuring each one to bid prices you’re comfortable with. To start, turn on transactive mode and go with the defaults (which represent an average person/budget). Then check out our tips.

2045 Energy Tips

Kemp Remillard

Use Your Car Strategically

If there’s an autonomous electric vehicle in your family or circle of friends, garage it at the home with the least predictable generation, where its battery can even out demand. (There’s little loss of convenience, since you can summon the car whenever you want.)

Upgrade Your Command

Utility-included command modules are pathetic, and they’re installed outside, where you never see them. (And they can’t help you make decisions if you never see them.) Buy an aftermarket module for your kitchen or living room. Get one capable of the following breakdowns:

Bid View: When, from where, and at what price you’ve been getting power.

When, from where, and at what price you’ve been getting power. Balance View: How much the utility has been using your appliances for stabilization, which earns account credits.

How much the utility has been using your appliances for stabilization, which earns account credits. Self-Sufficiency View: How many hours you operate under your own power. Buying a battery will boost this number, saving money; this view helps you size the battery.

Optimize Your Appliances

New appliances come with presets that dictate to you, their owner, when they should be used. Here are some rules of thumb for when you should listen:

For always-on appliances, like your refrigerator, always accept the presets. They’ll never sacrifice the appliance’s main function. For example, if the grid is stressed, a transactive fridge will adjust when the compressor kicks on—but that’s never going to push it above a safe temperature. There’s no downside.

For time-shiftable appliances, like the washer and dryer, sometimes accept the presets. If you’re about to wash your dress shirt for tomorrow’s important meeting, you can’t have the washer/dryer deciding to turn on after you’ve left for work.

For adjustable appliances, like the air conditioner, never accept presets. Who knows if you’re comfortable with what GE thinks the average American likes? Go in and set your own preferences.

This appears in the October 2018 issue.

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