It’s a cult favourite, the space-age answer to The Flintstones, airing on our screens in 1962 and set one hundred years in the future. The Jetsons were the family of the 2063, living in Orbit City – a futuristic utopia of elaborate (impossible some might have said) robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.
From Skypad Apartments which soared to levels above the clouds, robots which performed the housework, and wall mounted buttons to open doors, to portable flat-screen media devices and watches which communicated with each other….
Yes… it doesn’t all seem so strange now does it?
Fast forward fifty years, and the Jetson’s lifestyle is fast becoming normalised in the world of technology development.
Connected smart-home systems, like Hive which allows you to turn on your heating from the train are already in existence. Further technically advanced visions are readily predicted by the likes of AT&T. It appears connected home perks enjoyed by a certain George Jetson might not be light years away.
Adding to that are the ongoing developments in the robotics industry reflecting Hanna-Barbera’s own 1962 robot invention, Rosie.
Once a figure of futuristic imagination and envisaged in many a film, including I Robot, Boston Dynamic, together with Florida’s Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, recently showcased their latest invention – Atlas. The autonomous robot has two legs, two arms, and knows how to work a broom. It’s likely we won’t have to wait until 2063 to see smart robots integrated in households across the world.
Boston Dynamic’s robot, Atlas.
And so it can only be a matter of time before we take to the skies in flying bubble cars, can’t it?
Whilst the technology hasn’t quite been invented yet for us to travel in such style, and flying cars have struggled to get beyond the prototype stage, innovations are beginning to take shape. The Terrafugia TF-X is paving the way.
If funding can be gained, the TF-X, a plug-in four seater hybrid vehicle with wings, would be the first fully autonomous flying car.
With a range of 500 miles per flight, cruise speeds of 200mph and batteries which are rechargeable by the engine, the TF-X would certainly be at home in the TV show. However, development of the TF-X is expected to last 8–12 years, which means it won’t come to market before 2025. Still a good forty years ahead of The Jetsons.
Interested? You can reserve one on the website now…
