2016 Ford Global Trends Report

We are entering an unprecedented new era. There are more conflicts between people and the world, and two-thirds of adults believe that the world is less suitable for living than when they were young. But we cannot deny that new technologies have brought us convenience and benefits. For example, 62% of adults under 35 years old around the world agree that "I can easily imagine how I would use this time if I were riding in a self-driving car."

We live in the worst of times, but also in the best of times. So, what have the ever-changing technology and living environment that is very different from our ancestors brought us?

Ford's trend report lists the trends that will happen in 2016, including civilian heroes, Swiss Army knife lifestyle, time poverty, convenient life in the E-era, mindfulness becoming mainstream, awe of aging, embracing differences, buying less and wasting less, participating in the sharing economy, and changes in the retail industry.

The text is as follows :

The growing emphasis on self-reliance has triggered a wave of thinking about "purpose" and "use" in society. From mini houses to smartphones to public transportation, consumers are increasingly seeking experiences that combine quality, versatility and durability. Today, the better way to live is not to have more things, but to do more with less things.

Whether in the United States, Spain, China, or India, more than half of the people agree with the statement "When I buy a car, I want to use it for at least 10 years", which are 76%, 68%, 62%, and 62% respectively.

Consumers said they use single-purpose devices — e-readers, DVD players, TVs, etc. — 37 percent less, on average, since buying a tablet.

Austrian designer Verena Lang has created a special picture frame that can be folded down from the wall to serve as a dining table, which retails for around $2,800.

Clei, a company that makes multifunctional, transformable furniture, says its sales have increased 71 times since 2007.

In 2012, a team of Canadian designers began experimenting to create the "perfect" folding bike - they designed a folding bike with large wheels and a lightweight titanium frame that is safer, smaller, and more portable than any other folding bike on the market. The bike, named Helix, is perfect for those who need to use multiple modes of transportation for their daily commute. Helix closed its Kickstarter campaign in October 2015, having raised $2.2 million Canadian dollars (about $1.7 million). The company is now accepting pre-orders for the bike.

This jacket is called the Swiss Army Knife. It adds many useful things to the classic blazers and bomber jackets. You can find a neck pillow and an eye mask in the hood, gloves in the sleeves, two pockets on the chest for canned drinks, and the lighter can be disassembled into a writing pen. It is one of the most funded projects on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, raising more than $9 million.

The need for efficient use of space is growing, with the percentage of global urban dwellers at about 54% in 2007 and expected to rise to 70% by 2050. About one-third of Americans (ages 18 to 34) say they would seriously consider living in a tiny house. In the United States, tiny houses are typically 100 to 400 square feet, while the average American home is 2,600 square feet. The average price tag for a DIY tiny house is just $23,000.

CityHome is one of a series of projects in which MIT researchers have designed home furniture that can adapt to a variety of needs throughout the day, such as a bedroom that can be transformed into a home gym, a living room that can be transformed into a dining area for 14 people, and a kitchen that can be extended or retracted. You can control all the changes through voice, gestures, etc. Similarly, researchers are also working on designing office furniture that can cater to a variety of needs throughout the day.

Today, we are witnessing the rise of “full-service” technology as products become more predictable and more versatile. AI is providing more and more support, so we can pass on more and more responsibility to technology that can learn and adapt to our needs—giving us greater confidence in a better future.

62% of adults under 35 worldwide agree that “I can easily imagine how I would use my time if I were riding in a self-driving car.”
"I can foresee myself buying a self-driving car in the future," 84% of adults in India agreed with this statement, while as many as 78% in China thought so; in contrast, respondents in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom were quite wary of self-driving cars, with only 40%, 38%, and 30% agreeing respectively.
"I believe that the benefits of autonomous machines (drones/AI/driverless cars) will outweigh the risks." Compared with women (53%), more men around the world agree with the value of autonomous machines, reaching 61%. China and India are confident in this, with 73% and 70% of people affirming this, respectively, while the UK and the US are still concerned about the risks of autonomous machines, with only 43% of British and 42% of Americans optimistic.

The global smart home and building market is expected to grow at an annual rate of nearly 30% between 2013 and 2020. In Japan, the business related to smart cities is expected to triple by 2020 compared to 2011, an astonishing growth rate.

The University of Leeds in the UK is experimenting with using drones to repair potholes, street lights and public pipes. Their goal is to build an "auto-repair city" by designing robots that can act as urban handymen - identifying problems on the streets and then repairing them with minimal disruption to the public. The research will be divided into three subcategories: repair drones that can grasp brackets will be docked high on building structures to perform tasks such as repairing street lights; repair drones that can observe the road surface will be designed to automatically find potholes on the road surface and then repair them to prevent larger potholes; and unnoticed, fire-breathing drones will be permanently placed in public pipes to facilitate the search, repair and monitoring of the condition of public pipes.

Unveiled in June, Amazon Echo is a mass-market voice-controlled smart home system. With the anthropomorphic name "Alexa," the system can respond to spoken requests and perform a variety of electronic tasks—adding an event to your Google calendar or reading an audiobook to you. Amazon is partnering with other smart home brands to allow Echo to control more home functions, such as running your dishwasher and washing machine.

Australian startup Wearable Experiments has unveiled a new positioning technology that allows travelers to walk around unfamiliar cities without relying on maps or smartphones. After being pre-programmed with a detailed map of a new city, the navigation jacket can prompt tourists to turn left or right by vibrating on one shoulder - a small vibration means a small angle change, while a strong vibration means a large angle turn. The path can be customized according to pre-set settings.

As the old saying goes, “the journey is more important than the destination,” this has become a truism in the retail industry. Retail is no longer simply about products, it represents an experience—so retailers are looking for new ways to build meaningful connections with consumers.

In Brazil, China, and Russia, more than a third of people believe that interesting product presentation is essential to their in-store shopping experience. In Europe, 81% of people say they are ready to pay more for a better in-store experience. Meanwhile, 48% of American consumers are willing to buy more in stores that provide a personalized shopping experience.

Fashion brand C&A introduced "Fashion Like" in Brazil, an innovation that integrates real-time social media participation into the in-store shopping experience, adding LED screens on clothing racks to display the number of "likes" on Facebook, which refreshes every minute. The idea is to help people use the popularity ratings on the Internet when choosing clothes.

The iconic British retailer Burberry has attempted to transform its London flagship store into a physical version of the Burberry website. Featuring clothing embedded with microchips, interactive mirrors and in-store signage, the flagship store seamlessly interweaves the traditional retail experience with personalized content for the digital age, extending Burberry’s acclaimed online experience to offline physical stores.

Amazon was a pioneer in upgrading the online retail experience, and now the company is continuing to move forward on this path. With the Amazon Dash button, you can once again order the brand's products by simply pressing a physical button. Want to take a shower and suddenly find that the soap is out, or want to wash clothes but suddenly find that the detergent is running low? Just press this button-a small device connected to WiFi-and the goods will be delivered to your door in two days.

A Tokyo-based retail design team has reimagined mannequins in clothing stores. When a customer picks up a hanger (and the item on it), these new high-tech mannequins receive a signal and are then shown wearing the item on the hanger. This futuristic retail technology has been used in Japan's Vanquish store.

IKEA is using augmented reality to take products out of the traditional brochure and into your living room. The company’s catalog app creates a highly immersive home furnishing retail experience where customers can view IKEA products in 3D and visualize them in their own homes.

Text from: New Wisdom