THE FUTURE AS WE
SEE IT
We believe, technology with the power of AI, could bring travel inspiration from people, places and events realtime, relevant to one’s life in the moment. Today we’re benefitting hugely from assistive technology that makes movement convenient, hassle free and at the same time cost effective. Apps like Uber, have enabled peer to peer ride sharing, encouraging one to depend on fellow citizens and not necessarily rely on public transport always. Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), have brought trip planning and booking, to smartphones.
Talking about self driving cars, the world is making massive advancements towards automating driving, that can relieve people to do something else on the way. Recently IBM Watson has enabled a self driving bus called “Olli” that can help people with speech, vision disabilities to easily onboard the bus and move from one place to the other, on their own.
Technology, has enabled people to move from one place to another, within the neighborhood faster and in a cost effective way, with personalized travel assistants (chatbots) helping in travel planning, booking and with apps like GoogleNow recommending best routes to take. Technology has also enabled innovations in long distance travel, simplifying flight bookings, in-flight experience and destination exploration. Today, with the help of VR (virtual reality), we can enable armchair travelers, to experience destinations that they may not be able to travel to. With increased use of smartphones, while on the go – there’s tremendous opportunity for technology to intensify life experience in the moment, on the go.
Google Maps is widely-regarded as one of the best navigation apps. We find it fairly reliable for local travel and appreciate the offline access feature – where you can download specific routes / regions of google maps for offline use. You can also use Maps to discover places like museums or restaurants you’re passing by, and more interestingly, you can also check how busy a place is in real time (as per a recently released update).