4 Ways Future Dads Will Spend Their Time on Father's Day

The year is 2026, 10 years from now, and a nation of dads are eagerly awaiting their day of appreciation. A day they can shirk all responsibility and enjoy the sun on the back nine, watch the latest baseball game, see a concert, or play a few games. But this is the future, and all of those classic “dadtivities” are going to drastically change in the coming years.

Sunday is Father’s Day, and while it may be too late to get the perfect gift to show your appreciation, it’s not too late to prepare for the future. There’s a ton of advanced technology coming down the pipeline and it’s going to change the way dads all over the world spend their leisure time.

From virtual and augmented reality to self driving cars, here are four ways dads will spend Father’s day in the future.

4. Augmented Reality Golf

As devices such as Google’s Project Tango or Microsoft’s HoloLens become more prevalent, dads may be looking at the green in a whole new way. Augmented reality devices could display relevant information about the landscape ahead of players such as wind speed, land elevation, and the location of sand and water hazards.

Let’s face it, the hardcore golf dads out there are never giving up those one-of-a-kind set of clubs for a subpar virtual reality experience in HTC Vive. But, perhaps they could be persuaded to take a Google-Glass-style device out to the golf course for, let’s face it, some much needed assistance.

3. Reject the Self Driving Car

We’re moving fast towards autonomous cars, but there’s a certain freedom in driving a vehicle yourself that robots and software can never replace. Future dads may see this as more of a luxury escape from the monotony of self-driving minivans and soccer practice.

Unless it’s time for a mid-life crisis in which you blow thousands of dollars on an old gas-powered BMW, your car of choice will probably be an electric car. If trends continue the way they are, Tesla is poised to be the car a lot of people own and Elon Musk is a dad who very much enjoys driving.

So switch that electric Tesla Model 7 into manual and utilize its Insane Mode for a little back road driving.

2. Virtual Reality Entertainment

Stretching out in a reclining chair to watch the San Francisco Giants face off against the New York Mets is fun and all, but what if you could watch the game from the perspective of the umpire behind the plate?

We’re not too far away from live streaming virtual reality events. From sports to concerts, dads all over the world will be able to strap into a virtual world and put themselves right in the middle of the action, whether that’s Yoenis Cespedes hitting a walk-off home run, or jamming along with the ultimate dad-rock band, Wilco, as Jeff Tweedy himself strums his guitar for a virtual audience that’s with him on stage.

Paul McCartney and other artists have already pre-recorded virtual reality concerts for users to experience later from the comfort of their home. The company that put that event on, NextVR, has already signed partnership deals with Fox Sports and Live Nation to stream future sports and concerts live.

1. Build Something

Whether they actually are or not, most dads, and men in general, would like to be considered “handy” around the house. But, actually building that bird or tree house for the kids is a lot more difficult than it initially seemed.

With augmented reality tools, dads can better formulate a plan and build models of a structure before wasting too many supplies. The kids could get involved too and help design their ideal play structure using easy-to-interact-with tools on tablets and phones. Google’s Project Tango earlier this year at Google I/O showed off some of this technology, which allows users to build a Rube Goldberg-style obstacle courses on the kitchen table using a tablet. Leap Motion is also developing goggles and motion sensors that can track hand motion to build rudimentary blocks for an open world of interaction.