For many centuries, the idea of what a home looked like was a pretty standard and unchangeable one. And even into this century, while the way in which we build homes—the materials we use, the style of the home and interior—might have changed with fashions over the years, the basic idea and function of a person’s home has remained pretty much the same.
However, in recent years we have started to see a significant shift in the way in which a home functions, thanks to modern technology. Homes can now be used as the setting where we eat our meals, but also places for entertainment, shopping, exercising, and more. In the next few years, we are going to see homes evolve even further—here are some of the features that we can expect to see in a home in 2020.
Self Driving Cars Parked in Garages
Self driving, or “autonomous,” cars are already well on their way to reality. Many different car and tech companies are developing their own autonomous vehicles, and Google is well past the early development phase and deep into road testing. While there have been a handful of accidents (in millions of test runs), they have been put down to human error, and it is only a matter of time before every home has one of these cars in its garage. We can’t expect this to be the case within the next three—or even fifty—years, but you can bet that, as soon as they are available, there will be homeowners eager to take home an autonomous car.
A Home Theater for Everyone
A feature that does not need to be invented, and is already in many homes across the United States, we can expect the home theater to become even more popular in the next few years. There are multiple home theater galleries that can give us a look into the future. As a direct result of rising movie prices, the increased availability of movies to download or stream at home, and the greater affordability of home theater elements, every homeowner now wants a movie theater in their own home.
Touch Free Gadgets
First we said goodbye to pen and paper, then keyboards and mouses, and now it seems we might be saying goodbye to touch devices altogether—at least if current trends continue. We are already starting to see the emergence of a new age of “always on” voice activated devices, such as the Xbox One and the Amazon Echo. In the next few years, we can expect to see more of these sorts of devices, as well as motion activated controls for things such as appliances, utilities, and television.
Virtual Insanity
Our homes are also bound to be taken over by virtual reality—a large part of the appeal of virtual reality is that you can have certain experiences right in the convenience and safety of your own home. It is already catching on very quickly, and we can expect to see much more use of virtual reality/360 experiences in watching sports, playing video games, movie features, and so on.
Fully Integrated Homes
And with all of this new tech, there will be an increased need for homeowners to simplify, rather than complicate their at-home experiences through new technology. As such, many homes will start to become fully integrated. This is already true for a lot of higher end homes across the country, but this sort of technology is also becoming more widely available. The typical home in 2020 may well have fully integrated hand held devices, lighting and utilities, security, television, car, and even appliances.
A person’s home will always hold the same meaning, but technology is drastically changing the way that a home looks and acts. It might not be far away, but we can already expect homes in 2020 to look very different to how they do right now. And we can’t wait!