So for a taste of the Jetsons life, grab a 1960s style frozen dinner and nuke it.
But if Ford and other auto executives see the technology with a Jetsons like optimism, they have darker concerns, too.
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But a Jetsons-style flying car that can be piloted as easily as a family sedan still seems a long way off.
Boston Dynamics bad-to-the-bone (pun intended) BigDog (pictured at right) makes the list as well as Rosie from the Jetsons (circa 1962).
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Other predictions from the Jetsons proved to be even more on target.
The early years included crafty Tom chasing clever Jerry, the bedrock houses of The Flintstones and the awesome, lightning-fast hovercrafts of The Jetsons.
The general idea is to get usable tech into any and every home -- not just for the nerds, not like the Jetsons.
Freestanding units -- upright appliances about four feet tall that look like hair dryers from "The Jetsons" era -- power the invisible beams of harmless light.
"Not the Jetsons yet, but our advanced active safety research car is leading the industry into a new automated era, " Toyota said in a Tweet on Thursday.
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Add a few modern gizmos to the mix--one savvy shopper has even posted a list of Jetsons-friendly gadgets available through Amazon.com--and you're practically ready for the next space age.
Further down the road we might see the virtual technology embody something physical, i.e. a robotic assistant capable of performing actionable tasks, not unlike Rosie from The Jetsons.
But, if you're willing to think of living like the Jetsons as a trip to the past, rather than the future, you can start having some fun in the here and now.
Overall, the machine sports a retro-futuristic look sure to appeal to Generation X fans of the Jetsons--the same crowd that brought back bell-bottoms and fell in love with Volkswagen's recent update of the Beetle.
Where Andy Warhol mused everyone will be famous for 15 minutes and that brave new world where animated TV family The Jetsons fly around in domed bubble cars to get from point A to point B.
If Apple is going to get into the home robotics market, of course it needs a catchy name. iRobot (IRBT) is already a company, so something else would be needed. iAssistant? iRosey? (after the Jetsons robot).
Or, more precisely, nearly upon us, because the robotic vacuum cleaners I tested actually bear a much closer resemblance to the quirky appliances on The Flintstones than they do to the flawlessly performing bots featured on The Jetsons.
Or you can fire up the computer and surf over to online furniture outlet Design Within Reach, and shop for one of the graceful chairs designed by the Finnish genius Eero Saarinen--he died in 1961--that are crudely echoed on the Jetsons.
Or you can fire up the computer and surf over to online furniture outlet Design Within Reach (nasdaq: DWRI - news - people ), and shop for one of the graceful chairs designed by the Finnish genius Eero Saarinen--he died in 1961--that are crudely echoed on the Jetsons.
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