Ray Hammond is a successful business leader and entrepreneur. He is the author of 17 books about the future, a body of work which he began in 1980 and which stands as testament to the long-term dependability of his foresight. We sat down with him to talk about mobility trends and how they’ll affect the lighting and ADAS industries.
DVN: You are known for providing a view of the future which is both visionary and of practical use for a business environment. Can we already describe today how transport and travel industries will change and look like by 2030?
Ray Hammond: Inter-communicating, fully robotic cars that can safely navigate public roads unsupervised will be a reality by 2020 (although they won’t be widely deployed by that date).
It’s also highly likely that within a decade electric cars will have batteries that can power family vehicles for 500 miles on a single mains-supply charge and which can be recharged in a few minutes, while hydrogen-powered electric cars may be providing similar performance. Therefore, many pundits predict that digitally-equipped, robotic electric vehicles made by a new set of software-oriented manufacturers are the near-term future of road transport.