Back to the Future Pt. II proves both prophetic and nostalgic in retorspect -- and some companies are eager to tap into this mojo
You may or may not have noticed that today (Oct. 21, 2015) holds some small significance in 1980s pop culture. Namely, it is the day that one "Marty McFly" time travelled to in the 1989 comedy/sci-fi blockbuster Back to the Future Part II.
Long story short, Holywood's powers of prophecy proved decidedly mixed when it came to technology. Some predictions were complete misses -- most notably flying cars (but not for lack of effort).
Others were close enough to call them "almosts", like hoverboard technology which has popped up in pricey prototype form. Another almost is video glasses. While wearables have been a commercially dysfunctional bunch for the most part and glasses the biggest mess of them, all, Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Glass Explorer edition did manage to worm its way into the pop culture vocabulary even spawning a unique insult of sorts for rude wearables users -- "Glassholes".
And the niche looks poised to turn the corner with the help of Facebook, Inc.'s (FB) gaming-minded wearable Oculus VR. Oculus isn't alone; behind it waits a legion of similar planned products, including HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) and Valve's Vive VR, Sony Corp.'s (TYO:6758) PlayStation-pitched Project Morpheus, Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KRX:005930) (KRX:005935) Oculus-tied Galaxy VR, and Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) enterprise-friendly HoloLens.
A student visualizes the human heart with some help from HoloLens.
And some predictions were dead on the money including:
Engadget and CNN both have nice lists of these and some other back to the future technologies that did and didn't pan out.
There's clearly a back-to-the-futurist or two at Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO:7203). Not only did Toyota's luxury nameplate Lexus help to make hoverboards a step closer to real a couple months back...
...but now they've followed up with an entertaining spot dubbed "Fueled by the Future" featuring an older 2015 Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) and Christopher Allen Lloyd (Emmett "Doc" Brown) meeting up at a diner.
The spot is, of course, promotional in nature, plugging the new 2016 Toyota Mirai, an exotic hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (or FCEV for short) which is making it to the hands of a handful of lucky early American adopters later this month.
Appropriately the word "mirai" means "future" in Japanese. The vehicle is indeed futuristic. The culmination of several generations of fuel cell development at Toyota, it can travel 300 miles between fill ups.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, the studio behind the distribution of the Back to the Future movie franchise back in the 80s and who produced Toyota's topical Mirai spot, also piles on with a spoof of its own, with a faux-advertisement for "Jaws 19":
Universal also offers up a message from "Doc" Brown:
And Ford Motor Comp. (F) not to be outdone by its foreign arch-rival came out with a BTTF-themed commercial of its own bragging of its new "flux capacitor" available for a cool $1.2M USD. Uh, huh. Ford writes:
Add an element of excitement to any trip by upgrading your Ford with the available class-exclusive Flux Capacitor.
Securely installed in a stylish enclosure on the center console and powered by 1.21 gigawatts, the Flux Capacitor literally makes time travel possible. Please time travel with care, keeping in mind that different historical epochs will present unique challenges based on the cultural and technological limitations of the era.
Available starting October 21, 2015, the flux capacitor will allow you to have the time of your life…as you travel through time. [Obviously, this upgrade is not actually available. Happy #BTTF2015!]
Ah, good to know...
And for added fun here's College Humor's timely take...
In the movie Marty, Doc, and Jennifer (Marty's main squeeze) touch down at 4:29... which is exactly 10 minutes from now at the time I'm writing this. Happy "Back to the Future Day" 2015 (BTTFD 2015)!!
Sources: YouTube [Toyota], [Ford], [College Humor]
"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il
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