The future of travel tech

20 Jun

It’s 7.45am on a Saturday morning, I’ve just woken up. I’m feeling pretty refreshed after a good night’s sleep — this week was busy with work so I haven’t had time to plan what to do this weekend, but I know one thing — I want to make the most of it!

It would be great to get out of town and be somewhere different and exciting. I heard great things about this new restaurant that has opened in New York from my best friend who went last weekend — she was a massive fan of the signature cocktails! But I also fancy Rome or Barcelona — and they’re about the same travel time. I grab my smartphone and my virtual reality headset, and open the app to check out the restaurant to help me make a decision. From my bed, I’m immediately transported into the bar, and can look around at the decor, the restaurant area. She’s right, it looks pretty awesome, so I’m sold.

I ask my personal assistant to check out the prices for the flight (I’ve told him my budget already so he finds me the best deal), plus the times, and a hotel for overnight — I’d love to do some sightseeing whilst I’m there. There’s a supersonic flight leaving in a couple of hours — plenty of time to get ready and get to the airport. I instruct him to book the flights, organise a self driving car to pick me up and find somewhere pretty cool to stay too. He pings me a full itinerary when everything’s fully booked up.

In the meantime I get myself ready. I grab the essentials I’ll need for an overnight stay and pop them into my smart luggage case. Once it’s been sealed up and activated it wheels itself off to the front door, and I continue dressing and grab a quick breakfast.

The car service arrives and it’s a short 20 minutes journey door to door via the airport tunnel. I message my friend to say I’m heading to New York, and she has thoughts to join me too. I suggest we meet there as she’ll be running later than me.

The car drops me at the entrance of London SkyCity, and I walk through the facial recognition scanners above the sliding doors. I always love coming to the airport, it’s like a mini metropolis where people can fly in from all around the world and meet their loved ones for just a few hours, before flying out again. There’s a cinema, bowling alley, ice skating rink and so many places to eat and drink — they don’t need to waste time going into the city to relax together.

However, as it’s 10.28am now, and the flight leaves at 10.45am, I’ll just walk straight through and grab a coffee on the flight. I laugh to myself about how much time I used to lose waiting in queues for security, and now it’s so easy with artificial intelligence monitoring me as I interact in the airport and blockchain “passports”.

My smart luggage leads me through the busy airport until we arrive at the departure gate, at which point it takes a separate tunnel down into the cargo luggage hold. I board the flight, welcomed by Zoe who is a second generation android cabin crew. She shows me to my seat and helps me put on my safety belt. I’ve never been a particular fan of flying, but her calm demeanour is very reassuring.

Once everybody’s in their seats, the doors close automatically on the plane. Wilbur, the autonomous pilot, comes on to the speaker to say hello and wish us a pleasant flight, before taxiing us out to the supersonic take off runway. It’s just a few minutes to near-vertical take off and soon we’re zipping through the air across the Atlantic.

We arrive in New York and I head out of the arrivals gate and find my car service. We speed along the super freeway to the heart of the city, where I get the car to drop me at this cute bakery in Little Italy. Of course, I order a New Yorker for lunch with a strawberry milkshake. I love people watching so I sit in the window and watch the world go by.

My friend calls me from her flight and we agree to meet at the Statue of Liberty. It’s such a shame what happened to the islands with the rising sea levels, but thankfully they managed to relocate her on a new plinth land side and I’d love to see her again. I ask my personal assistant to book a volocopter to pick me up from the nearest point just a block away, to take me over to Liberty Park.

I have a fantastic few hours over there meeting up with my friend, just walking and talking like the old days. The hotel’s app pings me at 3pm to say my room is ready and to check in. Once confirmed at the press of a thumb print it’s ready for me to use, so I suggest to my friend that we head over there to freshen up before dinner. The great thing about the app is that it can also be used to open the room and control the environment — the lighting, thermostat, entertainment systems and blinds. I get the shower going before I step in there so the water is optimum temperature!

Once we’re ready we make our way out out to the restaurant — it’s just a few blocks away so easy to walk to. At the bar, we order the signature cocktails before finding a booth to settle into. That first sip is pure magic and just goes to prove — technology is no substitute for the real experience.

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Inspiration was drawn from the following products: