Photography by Elliot Ross
FROM ELECTRIC RVS TO NEXT-GEN CAMPGROUNDS, THE AMERICAN ROAD TRIP IS CHANGING FAST. WE ASKED 25 EXPERTS WHAT’S NEXT. GUESS WHAT? THE JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGUN.
Usually, it’s best to live in the moment out on the road. We love travel because it lifts us out of the normal hustle. Do it right and you hit that flow state: you’re not looking past the next bend.
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But pause, pull over, and take a gaze a little farther down the road. Imagine you’re out on an excursion ten years from now. Or twenty. What will you drive? (Or ... will you drive, exactly?) Where will you sleep? And will the call of the road sound different than it does now?
The stories that follow ask all these questions. And the answers we found hint that we are living in a pivotal moment. In a few decades, American travelers might look back on our time, right now, as the era when profound change took hold. When we found new ways to power our adventures. When RV builders and automakers rethought how vehicles should look—how we should use them. And when we all started to think in new ways about where we want to go and how we want to get there.
Buckle up. Set the coordinates. Let’s take a ride to the Future of the Road.
THE CAMPGROUND OF THE FUTURE
We’ve reimagined camping for the year 2050.
SEVEN RVs LIGHT YEARS AHEAD
These radical RVs are set to roll in a whole new direction.
WITH THE LIGHTSHIP L1, The FUTURE IS NOW
The Lightship L1 looks and feels like a ride to tomorrow. Wildsam sat down with cofounders Toby Kraus and Ben Parker and creative director Rob Williams to get the start-up’s backstory.
SEVEN PREDICTIONS FOR THE ROAD AHEAD
We interviewed futurists and leaders at Ford, REI, Rivian and beyond, and came away with bold ideas in road travel.
We Designed the RV of 2050
The anatomy of a next-generation exploration machine.
THE MOST INNOVATIVE RVS ON THE ROAD
You can climb aboard these innovative (and just plain cool) RVs right now.
THE GEAR FOR THE FUTURE
The most forward-looking products on the market to make any trip a space-age excursion.
