An article published by MIT in the US suggests 2021 will be the year that everything in the world could change.
According to an array of predictions from tech companies and market researchers, plenty of changes are coming, including many more developments in transportation, lots of people spending time in virtual reality and lab-grown chicken.
Electric Cars
When it comes to driving, 2021 will not just be about robot cars; it is expected to be a year in which there will be more electric vehicles.
A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts that electric vehicles will make up a little less than 5% of all car sales in Europe that year, up from 2%, respectively, this year.
Volvo, for instance, which already aims to have an autonomous car on the road by 2021, is planning to launch five new all-electric cars by that year.
Virtual Reality
Though virtual reality’s first year with some powerful consumer headsets on the market, 2016 was not exactly a blockbuster, the technology is expected to be on a lot more faces come 2021.
International Data Corporation forecasts that shipments of virtual and augmented reality headsets will rise to about 92 million in 2021, which would be close to 10 times as many as shipped out last year.
Things will change, though, as companies adopt the technology for tasks like 3-D modeling, using headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens and Meta’s Meta 2.
Cheap Solar Power
Clean energy has been getting cheaper for a while now, and in the not-so-distant future of 2021, it is expected to finally become cheaper to use renewable power sources like solar and wind.
While solar power—which is pricier than the other big renewable source, wind—is already comparable price-wise to coal in countries such as the US, Italy, and Germany, a recent report from Bloomberg predicts that by 2021, solar power will be cheaper than coal in several countries.
Lab-Grown Meat
Chicken grown in a laboratory, rather than on a farm, sounds far out, but it may be here in a few years. Moreover, since it does not involve killing any fowl, it may lead to chicken nuggets that even vegans could eat.
Several companies in China, Japan, and Europe are planning to sell lab-raised, animal-free chicken by 2021.
There are still a bunch of issues to work out, though, such as how the product will taste, how quickly it can be manufactured. However, currently those meats cost thousands of dollars per kilo.
