5 Technologies to Watch Over the Next 5 Years

Image credit: Audi.Autonomous carsBoth automotive and technology companies are rapidly approaching a consumer-facing autonomous vehicle. Google, Tesla, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have already made huge leaps in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle testing, and the next five years will bring even more innovations. Government regulations should eventually catch up to technological innovation — and by 2020 there will be 10 million cars on the road with self-driving features.

Agricultural dronesPrecisionHawk already uses agricultural drones to track crop growth — and the market is about to explode. The commercialization of drones is expected to bring $80 billion in revenue and job creation between 2015 and 2025, and precision agriculture (using technology to improve food production) is expected to be the biggest market for drones.

Image credit: PrecisionHawk.

Artificial intelligenceBy 2020, Cisco predicts that 50 billion things will be connected to the Internet, all collecting vast amounts of data. There will be far too much information for humans to sort through, and we’ll need to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) systems to decipher what data is the most relevant and actionable. Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon and other tech giants are investing heavily in AI technologies in anticipation of this AI need.

Image credit: Google.

Connected citiesAccording to Sierra Wireless, cities waste $39 billion worth of water, gas, and energy resources. To reduce this waste, the company works with city governments and companies to use its wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) products in smart cities. The result is wireless parking solutions that improve traffic flow, wireless smart grids that reduce energy usage, and connected public transportation systems that run more efficiently. By 2020, the global smart city market is expected to reach $1.5 trillion.

Ingestible technologyPrivate company Proteus Digital Health already has an ingestible sensor that can be embedded into medications and communicate to a wearable patch when medicine has been taken. Alphabet’s Google is working on nanoparticles that can be swallowed, travel through the bloodstream, and detect cancer and potential heart attacks. And PayPal believes ingestible tech could use natural body identifiers, like vein recognition, to replace traditional passwords.

Image credit: Proteus Digital Health.

The next billion-dollar iSecretThe world's biggest tech company forgot to show you

something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has

nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.