Signals

Turin – Italian design firm Carlo Ratti Associati has revealed a design concept for a self-driving bar unit operated by a robot.

The concept for the bar on wheels, named Guido, has been developed in partnership with Makr Shakr, an industry leader in robotic bar systems. Comprising a unit featuring two mechanical arms that can precisely prepare and serve any drinks combination in seconds, the bar is mounted on a self-driving platform.

Much like ride-hailing services such as Uber, an affiliated app allows anyone to book the bar on demand. Once the bar arrives, consumers use the app to order a drink, which will verify their age and let them pay via their smartphone.

The project re-imagines the future of autonomous vehicles and reveals the potential of driverless technology to transform leisure in cities. Visit our dedicated Far Futures vertical for more on the future of mobility.

Grottole, Italy – The home-sharing company wants to revitalise the village of Grottole, which has more than 600 homes sitting empty.

In a project called The Italian Sabbatical, Airbnb is inviting four people to become temporary citizens of the village in order to support the local community. The temporary citizens will get the opportunity to experience typical Italian life, with language lessons, training in growing local vegetables and one-to-one cooking all included in the three-month experience.

The arrangement will also see the four people set up Airbnb Experiences to promote tourism to the area. In addition, Airbnb is providing the funding for the village to convert three buildings into a new community centre. ‘[The mayor] was looking, not for tourists, but people to enjoy and be part of the community,’ says Federica Calcaterra, PR manager at Airbnb Italy.

With rural villages lying vacant over the world, travel and hospitality brands are stepping in to turn ghost towns into tourism opportunities.

Almost four in 10 (38%) of Britons have volunteered in the past 12 months, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 people by YouGov for NCVO. The survey also found that volunteering has personal health benefits as well as social – 77% of respondents found that it improved their mental health, and more than half (53%) said it improved their physical health.

Loneliness is a problem that can be alleviated through volunteering, especially among young people. The study found that for 77% of 18–24-year-olds volunteering had helped to combat their sense of isolation. ‘There is an emerging body of evidence that suggests volunteering can improve your mental health and the language I have read is that it can help with depression, life satisfaction and wellbeing,’ said Karl Wilding, NCVO’s policy and volunteering director.

In the future, collective happiness will become an increasingly important way to measure progress, as governments fight to tackle dangerous rates of loneliness. For more, read our macrotrend Post-growth Society.