Ford Futurist Sheryl Connelly joins the team at Conde Nast Traveler’s podcast for a live taping at Fordhub in NYC!
I remember my road trips fondly. My family and I would make the 14-hour (excuse me, 14 hour and 1 minute) haul to Sarasota, Florida on more than one occasion: just about every summer of my childhood. I remember it by its terrain: Kentucky was smooth sailing and a little rocky, Tennessee was curvy and lumpy, Georgia was flat and fast (Think Tifton!), and once we hit Valdosta, we were basically there (okay, four hours to go, but still). Seeing the first palm trees, a detour through Ocala, and finally the beach, it was a journey punctuated by a hotel stay, usually just outside of at Atlanta (shoutout to Forsyth, Donegal, and Griffin, GA for playing host to us).
So in light of my nostalgia and forward thinking tendencies, Ford is making a new commitment by exploring the future of the humble road-trip with corporate futurist Sherryl Connelly, who’s been behind Ford’s future thinking for over a decade. In light of recent innovations and Ford’s commitment to have a level four (think: hands, off, eyes off, mind off most of the time) autonomous vehicle on the road by 2021, the roadtrip is definitely going to look a lot different in the future.
For a holiday event at FordHub in the World Trade Center Oculus in New York City, Ford played host to Conde Nast Traveler’s Travelogue for a live taping of the podcast, produced by MouthMedia. It featured Connelly as well as regulars on the the podcast, in which they describe the experience of the road trip in the future.
There’s no denying the facts: Experiences are cool. Young people (myself included) love road trips and being individual on them. Time is valued and experiences are what matter most. The road trip is the essence of the experience, from the hotels to the sights and scenes. As the podcast proceeded, thoughts swirled around what that roadmap might look like: will I need to drive? What if I want to take the scenic route? The power of the app community can come to save us. Creating powerful AI and AV applications can unlock and make the future less miserable and targeted. Pre-planning your trip, choosing a route on the fly, they’re all possible. But getting lost? Hmm…
Be sure to look out for the new podcast and be sure to stop in the FordHub as it’s changing nearly daily. This time it features a Ford sleigh… is that one autonomous, too?
Check out MouthMedia’s Travel is your Business here and learn more about Fordhub here.