The 21st century has just entered its adult year as it reaches its twenty-first birthday, said Charles Saba, journalist, urban planner and specialist in public safety. Gradually the world is getting rid of the bonds that bind it to the past. The world’s backpack carries the sum total of different cultures in the form of incredible knowledge, accumulated over the millennia, that propel us towards a fantastic universe, ready to be navigated and discovered.

The technological changes that are taking place are so rapid that there is barely time to keep up with them. The school, as we know and experienced it, has become too small for the young generation, people and children who are born ready for today, where the future turns in the blink of an eye.

An interesting and yet unpretentious website, Camarosnet, established a discussion group, that through different sources, has raised a plausible hypotheses, that changes which are happening in different areas of knowledge will make life healthier and more fraternal.

In cities, traffic and transportation’s changes will have an immediate impact on people’s lives. Here it is not a question of predicting the future, nor is it fiction or mysticism. All that needs to be done is follow what is already in the experimental phase to understand, for example, that auto repair shops have their days numbered.

The internal combustion engine has 20,000 parts, as the Camaroset website states, while the electric engine has, on average, only 20. Electric vehicles will be sold with lifetime warranties and can only be repaired at the dealership. In 10 minutes, it is possible to replace a defective electric car motor and install a brand new one. If the electric motor’s malfunction light comes on, the driver can go to the nearest dealership, as shown on the car’s dashboard info system and while drinking a cup of coffee, the repair is done.

Electric vehicles and hybrids already circulate in several cities around the world, most of them in the form of tests vehicles. In these cities, including Brazil, it is already possible to find places to charge electric car batteries, even in shopping malls.

In recent days, there has been much controversy about the closing and dismantling of the Ford Motor plants in Brazil. What the press did not highlight was that this same movement occurred simultaneously in other parts of the world. Nor did the press point out, that this pioneer carmaker in Brazil, was already losing ground to Japanese, Korean and even Chinese manufacturers. On the other hand, Ford understood that competition with the young and prosperous new technology based brands such as: Tesla, Apple and Google, with their electric, solar and clean energy cars, was not winnable.

In developed countries it is already possible to see charging stations and traffic lights powered by solar energy. Gas stations will gradually lose their role. The so-called dirty energy from oil and coal will be replaced by new, cheaper and non-polluting energy forms.

But that is only part of the story, smart vehicles, including collective vehicles, are less vulnerable, cheap and hygienic and are already taking to the streets and will soon be circulating in ever larger scales.

Thus, when you call a taxi or Uber, it will arrive at the door without a driver. The private car fleet is expected to plummet because it will be more economic and safer than owning a vehicle. The scenario presented is promising, the user will not have to spend on fees, insurance and maintenance costs. Safer, smart cars are able to slow down according to the flow of vehicles, to stop safely for a crossing pedestrian or animal.

The same will happen with the fleet of urban and intercity buses, which without drivers will be much cheaper, hygienic and safe, since they are managed and directed by efficient artificial intelligence tools.

According to Camarosnet, approximately 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. Many due to human distraction or drunk driving. We record an accident for every 60,000 miles driven; with autonomous driving it will fall to 1 accident in 6 million miles, driven. This will save more than a million lives worldwide each year.

To better understand what is happening, just look at smartphones, who would have imagined not long ago that a phone would become a powerful camera or camcorder and that thousands of people would have access to this equipment. Who would have imagined in the late 1990s, that it would be possible to photograph without film.

Another new impactful technology: Streaming services – The online delivery of information, that allow one to see a movie, hear music and interact, is already substituting cable service, without the high cost that those companies charged.

The most notorious example of this exuberant new world is what we are experiencing now, with vaccines that were developed in less than a year and are already being used. These immunizing vaccines, coming from various countries, use cutting-edge technology and methodology. It is important to say, what was done in record time, in the past would have taken years or even decades. All of this with accomplished within quality standard, respecting international protocols, as required by regulatory bodies for the vaccine’s approval.

All available technological innovations will be even faster with artificial intelligence: such as facial recognition, new technology standards in the areas of health, education, employment, environment, traffic, transportation and cities, as in many other areas of life.

It is no wonder that the world no longer accepts as normal such things as traffic accidents, environmental pollution, noise aggression, lack of water and sewage treatment, street pollution, precarious housing, contempt for the forest, social inequality, corruption and lack of ethics in all things public.

The wonderful New World is under construction!!! With its social networks, streaming, which puts at your fingertips the right to choose something that goes far beyond the imposition of canned television truths. And, watch! 5G has not yet fully arrived…

The 21st century with its scientific and technological achievements will return to the citizen what he lost in the smoke, chaos and violence of the past.

The long-dreamed urban mobility seems to be arriving in this time of Hope.

(*) José Roberto de Souza Dias / Joe Bob,PhD

Two Flags Post Founder, Publisher & Editor-in Chief Journalist, Mtb 0083569 / SP/BR, Master in Economic History and PhD in Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo, Doctor Honoris Causa at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Florianopolis – Cesusc  

(*) English Version:

Charles Saba, Two Flags Post Founder, Security Editor & Advertising Sales Department, Journalist Mtb 0083622/SP/BR, urban planner and expert and international speaker on public safety.

Image: Zac Durant on unsplash/Medium