In January, the US edition of MIT Technology Review will select the most groundbreaking technologies of the new year. These three topics will not be among them.
The MIT Technology Review editorial team is always on the lookout for promising technologies for our future. At the start of a new year, however, the US edition always puts a spotlight on very specific approaches that have a lot of potential and that, in the editors’ opinion, will experience a breakthrough in the future.
“Breakthrough” can be interpreted in different ways: Perhaps there was a scientific advance that made a new technology possible, or a company received approval for an important medical treatment. Perhaps a consumer device reached a turning point in its adoption, or an industrial technology passed the critical pilot phase with flying colors. The advances can therefore extend across a wide variety of areas. It is always exciting to see which technologies our editors see the most potential in.
However, some candidates inevitably fall behind. Nevertheless, it is worth keeping an eye on them.
We will definitely do so. These include:
Virtual Power Plants
Virtual power plants are energy systems that combine many different technologies to both generate and store electricity. They allow utilities to connect solar panels and wind turbines to grid batteries and electric vehicles and better control the flow of electricity on the grid.
During times of peak electricity consumption, software linked to smart meters could one day automatically decide to provide electricity to a customer’s home by drawing power from a fully charged electric vehicle in the neighbor’s garage, thus reducing demand on the grid. The software could also calculate how to compensate the owner of the electric vehicle for this.
There are now an estimated 500 virtual power plants in the US , with a capacity of up to 60 gigawatts (about the amount the US grid
will add in total capacity this year ). Some such plants are already in operation in China , Japan , Croatia and Taiwan . But many more virtual power plants would need to be configured before their benefits would be felt across the entire grid.
Useful AI agents
AI agents are definitely experiencing a peak right now. These AI-powered helpers are supposedly scheduling our appointments, booking our trips, and doing all sorts of tasks online on our behalf. Agents are using generative models to learn how to navigate websites and desktop software (and manage our passwords and credit card details), perhaps interacting and coordinating with other people’s agents in the process.
And there’s real engineering power behind it—Salesforce just launched a platform that lets companies create their own customer service agents, and Anthropic’s Claude model is gaining the ability to navigate a computer with a mouse and keyboard, just like humans.
But getting these agents to know what you mean when you make certain requests and enabling them to reliably perform the required actions remains a major challenge. Given the enormous hurdles, it will probably be a while before they are good enough to be truly useful. AI agents may be coming, but not right away.
Air taxis
The acronym eVOTL (electrical vertical takeoff and landing) is a bit long-winded, which is why they are more commonly known in German-speaking countries as ” air taxis “. You can think of them like electric helicopters. Most of the versions under development are not intended as private vehicles, but are flown by pilots to transport commuters from the suburbs or to bring visitors from the airport to the city center. One day, these air taxis could also fly autonomously, the industry promises.
There is real progress in the launch of flying taxis. Earlier this year, manufacturer eHang received the first Chinese certificate for mass production of this type of vehicle and has started accepting orders . South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have taken steps to allow the operation of flying taxis there. And in the US, Archer recently received FAA certification to begin commercial operations. In October, the FAA finalized rules for training pilots and operating flying taxis – the first time in decades that the agency has approved such rules for a new category of aircraft. At the same time, however, there is no progress for the flying taxi startup Lilium , which had “started” so promisingly – in October it was forced to file for bankruptcy.
Interest and momentum have been growing in recent years, with major companies in the aerospace industry, including Boeing and Airbus, investing in startups or funding internal R&D projects to develop these futuristic aircraft. However, no eVTOL company has yet entered commercial operations, which is something we will continue to monitor.
