{"id":51901,"date":"2019-06-20T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T23:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flashpacknew.wpengine.com\/?p=51901"},"modified":"2023-05-10T09:13:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T08:13:04","slug":"5-ways-ai-and-robots-will-affect-future-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/solo\/careers\/5-ways-ai-and-robots-will-affect-future-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways AI and robots will affect future travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future technology of Artificial Intelligence (or Machine Learning) is exciting, scary and arriving at supersonic speed. But how will AI and robots affect future travel?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

1. Driverless everything<\/h3>\n

\"Arnold<\/p>\n

We have an interesting relationship with driverless vehicles. We accepted driverless trains very easily \u2013 London’s DLR, for example, has been trundling around without drivers since 1987.<\/p>\n

Driverless cars we\u2019ve been more sceptical about, but seem to have made peace with their inevitability (aids for human drivers like lane assist<\/a> are pretty much standard in every new car).<\/p>\n

But if either of those concepts blows your mind and\/or has you feeling a little uneasy in the pant department, just wait until you board a pilotless aeroplane! That\u2019ll feel completely fine, right? But it will almost certainly happen \u2013 it kind of does now, to an extent.<\/p>\n

The biggest airliners are \u2018fly by wire\u2019 planes that are extremely reliant on computers. Autopilot is able to take off and land a plane if required. You also have drones, which aren\u2019t technically pilotless, but the pilot isn\u2019t up front speaking to you in a reassuringly smooth voice.<\/p>\n

The problem is, while people aren\u2019t at all comfortable with the thought of unmanned passenger planes<\/a>, the demand for pilots is outstripping demand. So, we either train more pilots, take fewer flights or say hello to Captain Flybot 3000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Robot hotels<\/h3>\n

\"miachael<\/p>\n

This is actually happening – guess where? That\u2019s right, Wales!<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not Wales. Obviously, it\u2019s Japan<\/a>. The Henn na Hotel<\/a> is staffed mainly by robots. But it\u2019s more than a Japanese novelty: it\u2019s the future.<\/p>\n

The Vdara Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas uses two robot \u2018butlers\u2019<\/a> to deliver room service. This Chinese company<\/a> claims to have created an AI receptionist. Even hotel mega-giants Hilton experimented with a Watson-powered robot concierge called Connie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soon, it\u2019ll be the sound of digitally-produced voices apologising for coming in to clean your room while you\u2019re watching BBC World in your pants, and six-armed robots getting your omelette order wrong at breakfast.<\/p>\n

But robots aren’t immune to the pitfalls of hospitality employment: the Henn na Hotel had to lay around half off its 243-strong robot workforce<\/a> because they were creating more problems than they solved.<\/p>\n

3. AI travel agents<\/h3>\n

\"space<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like the human touch. No font of expertise and experience is currently as efficient and able as the neural networks of the human mind. And this is why we have travel agents: they know more than we do about travel.<\/p>\n

But how many of you have booked an entire holiday, spending hundreds or thousands of pounds, without speaking to a human being? Flights, accommodation, transfers, lift passes, restaurant reservations, foot massages, ghost tours, bird-spotting walks, guided raffia sandal-making – it can all be done by your thumb in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n

The next step, logically, is a bridge between the two: an omnipresent army of artificially intelligent travel agents who can find the perfect holiday for you, powered by deep learning and a vast collective knowledge of everything travel-related except what it feels like to get sunburnt.<\/p>\n

Read more: How to plan the perfect vacation, according to science<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

4. No more passports<\/h3>\n

\"alec<\/p>\n

We can all dream of a utopian future in which there\u2019s no need for borders, but let\u2019s face facts: it\u2019s not exactly the direction the world is travelling in. The way things are going, your bathroom is going to declare itself an independent state and you\u2019re going to need a visa to take a poo.<\/p>\n

So, assuming the future still requires passports, sadly they\u2019re less likely to come in the lovely, traditional, stampable paper form. Biometric passports already have microchips in them: chips that could easily be implanted into your head! Ok, maybe not that, but recognition, be it facial or cornea or fingerprint, could soon be your way through passport control: it\u2019s already being trialled at Changi airport in Singapore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Cleaner, more efficient future travel<\/h3>\n

\"flying<\/p>\n

You might have heard of smart cities<\/a>. Super-connected, intelligently-planned urban conurbations aimed at making life an absolute dream, both now and in the future, through the use of technology.<\/p>\n

A key element of a smart city is a smart transport system. Everything, from traffic lights to buses to bike-hire schemes, uses artificial intelligence to make people and things move around with less chance of bumping into each other, duplicating journeys or hands coming out of car windows with a middle finger raised.<\/p>\n

The more we travel, particularly by air, the more things get complicated. Flying cars might be a bit farther away than we can predict, but a rise \u2018flying taxis\u2019 (easily-accessible private jets) isn\u2019t all hard to imagine. In fact, it\u2019s very close indeed<\/a>. More planes mean more air traffic, which means a greater need for intelligent air traffic control.<\/p>\n

And while ‘more planes’ doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly, that AI technology can be used to make all kinds of transport more efficient. Fewer empty planes and trains, less stacking over airports, more intelligent planning of onboard catering (no more fish dishes = less food waste IMO – who eats them?) \u2013 it all helps the goal of green tourism<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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