Seven Predictions for the Road AheadSeven Predictions for the Road Ahead

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Jennifer Brace jokes that if she was a natural at her job, she would have predicted her own career path. She grew up in Detroit, daughter of a Ford technician. She studied engineering. So no surprise, she went to work for the iconic automaker.

Her actual work, however, could not have been foreseen.

Over the past two decades, Brace has developed technology for touch screens and autonomous vehicles. In 2023, she became Ford’s chief futurist. “It was pure luck. I fell into it,” Brace says. “But now I have what I think is the coolest job at the company.”

That job is to think big—about emerging technology, sure, but also about global events, all analyzed to help the company prepare for an uncertain future. “We stress-test plans,” Brace says. “If we’re working with a team that’s developing a future product, we’ll push their strategy up against different future contexts.”

Since Brace joined Ford in 2004, the company has weathered an economic recession, a global pandemic and a variety of political storms. And though she can’t predict what will come next, Brace still keeps her colleagues looking ahead.

THE TRENDS JENNIFER BRACE IS THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW

• “We can’t stop talking about artificial intelligence. It’s going to keep growing and be used in new ways. The full impacts? We are yet to understand what those might be.”

• “We keep seeing signals of the importance of mental health, especially for younger people. How might we use vehicle space to create an environment for someone who needs a mental break?”

• “A lot of teams are asking us about electrification. It’s evolving. We’re constantly checking in with consumers. We continue to see electric vehicle technology get better and the support and infrastructure around it get better.”

As CEO of Scout Motors, Scott Keogh is reviving an icon of roadworthy ruggedness. Arguably the first SUV, the old International Harvester Scout went off the market in 1980 but lives on as a cult favorite. With backing from Volkswagen, the new Scout will roll out an all-electric reincarnation later this year. Keogh says the tech may be forward-looking, but the experience will be rooted in heritage. “Most EV-makers are building vehicles that say, ‘we don’t care so much about the consumer,’” he says. “‘We have so much software, so much AI—don’t touch anything.’ And honestly, we want to bring back ‘mechanicalness.’ We think can-do spirit is a wonderful thing. You’re going to see locking differentials. You’re going to see switches. The people we’re speaking to want to get their hands dirty and do things.”

“When we built El Cosmico, I took influence from the 1960’s and ’70’s counterculture—everything from hippie camping and living off the land to self-empowerment and skills-building. Stuart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog was a major influence—an encyclopedia of how to live in new and revolutionary ways. We think of El Cosmico as a place for intrepid travelers. But in 20 years, the fearless traveler will probably be exploring the solar system, and other frontiers we can’t imagine yet. The biggest opportunity I see is in sustainability. El Cosmico will be the first hotel in the world to use ICON’s 3D-printed construction—the same technology they’re using with NASA to build the first infrastructure and eventually habitats on the moon and Mars. At the same time, for every advancement, there’s an equal passion for the past—for doing things in a low-fi, low-tech, hands-on way that is a balance to that futurism. The experience of sleeping beneath a vast canopy of stars on a big swath of open land. I don’t think discovery will ever be engineered out of the human experience. Human beings have a magical ability to find joy and discovery and beauty.”

— LIZ LAMBERT, HOTELIER AND DESIGNER

RVs in superstore lots is an American saga. Start with folksy origins, as RV-loving Sam Walton welcomes travelers to his place(s). Then watch complications ensue. (Hurricanes, pandemic, nomadic lives—even Walmart spots can be tough to get.) Can the next chapter plant a new seed? “Rewilding” sews nature back into man-made spaces with native plant species, wildlife habitat and a hands-off approach to flora and fauna. In urban areas like Detroit, vacant lots now foster pollinators and peregrine falcons; in rural Europe, abandoned farms are returning to rangeland. Imagine overnight spots sheltered by native shrubs, clover-covered berms between parking slots and easy-draining gravel where asphalt used to sprawl. (Hat-tip to Virginia design studio D.I.R.T. for an inspiringly verdant Detroit parking lot makeover.)

For outdoor giant REI, the future means erasing fears for any camper. Nate Borne, the Seattle-based co-op’s director of product strategy for gear and cycle, knows well what stirs anxiety in the wild. A bad night’s sleep. Weather extremes. Wi-Fi dead zones. “We solve problems with the gear we design,” Borne says. And while innovation could push the imagination—reinventing the campfire, or creating bug-repellent apparel—the biggest gear fear is simple: Will my stuff last? “The key is to thoughtfully enable repairability,” Borne says: gear that lasts a long, long time.

The future will be quiet, says Denise Cherry, vice president of experience design at Rivian. “There is something beautiful about seeing nature in an EV,” she says. “You roll windows down and it sounds like you’re walking.” After selling nearly 50,000 EVs last year and securing a $5 billion investment from Volkswagen, Rivian’s growth may lead to less noise pollution in the outdoors—something Cherry sees as a pathway to environmentalism. “The way you instill a conservationist mindset,” she says, “is to have people fall in love with the places they’re going.”