Despite the fact that you’ve been relegated to your home for most of the past year, technology has continued to develop and innovate. And, given the abnormal nature of 2020, technology trends of 2021 are expected to be heavily influenced by what we’ve experienced this past year.

Aerospace Tech

It’s no secret that the aerospace industry had it rough in 2020. With air travel being severely restricted and risky for exposure, there’s been a distinct drop in the number of people flying. Given the customer decline, airlines and aerospace companies have instead turned their attention to research, development, and new innovation. In September of 2020, Airbus revealed three concept designs for hydrogen-powered aircraft, and they are set to continue work and research on these innovative designs this year. In addition, the company is set to sign a deal with several countries (Italy, France, Germany, and Spain) in order to begin work developing a large drone. Rolls-Royce is also in the process of developing an electrically powered aircraft which they’ve called the Spirit of Innovation.

Retail Experience

Online shopping has taken the world by storm this past year as it allows one to avoid contact shopping. It is expected that Amazon and other retail stores will begin to implement more contactless checkout setups in which a machine can simply read all of the items in your cart and your credit card information on your way out. Expanding the availability of this technology trend of 2021 will certainly make the shopping experience much safer and faster.

Autonomous Cars

As we approached the end of 2020, we’ve started to see the autonomous vehicle market open up more. For example, Waymo’s autonomous driving vehicles became open to the public in October of last year and now have more than 300 operating vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona. Their plans for 2021 include scaling up their availability and expanding to new cities.

Both Lyft and Cruise (which is owned by General Motors) have also released plans to begin testing their self-driving vehicles in San Francisco this year, a city where the layout will provide the cars with more of a challenge.

What are the technology trends of 2021 you’re hoping to see?