5 things that will soon become obsolete

Obsolescence isn’t always quick or complete, but emerging technologies and changing practices are sounding the death knell for these familiar items.

Keys

Keys, at least in the sense of a piece of brass cut to a specific shape, are going away.

At the office, most of us already use a card with a chip embedded to get access.

But for getting into your house (and your car), the technology that will kill off the key is your smart phone.

Connecting either via Bluetooth or the Internet, your mobile device will be programmed to lock and unlock doors at home, at the office and elsewhere.

The secure software can be used on any mobile device. So if your phone runs out of juice, you’ll be able to borrow someone else’s device and log in with a fingerprint or facial scan.

Phone stolen? Simply log in and change the digital keys. Kwikset, a brand of Spectrum Brands, offers the Kevo, and lock veterans Yale have partnered with Nest, now owned by Alphabet, to create the Yale Linus.

For the car, a variety of "connected car" services such as Audi Connect and GM's OnStar already let you unlock and lock the car remotely and even start it with a phone app — but you still need your keyfob to drive off.

Next up: Ditching the keyfob entirely. Volvo says it plans to implement this in 2017.

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Power shortages

Frustrating backouts that leave people with fridges full of ruined food are on their way out as our electrical grid becomes increasingly intelligent – and resilient.

Two factors are at work: slow, incremental “smart grid” improvements to the system that delivers electricity, and the rapidly expanding use of solar energy in homes and business.

The breakthrough product here is the home battery.

Developed by electric-car maker Tesla and others, by 2020, batteries will be cheap enough to store surplus solar power during the day and discharge it overnight, helping to better balance electricity supply and demand – and run a home for up to days during a blackout.

LED lighting and more efficient appliances are helping, too, by reducing load on the system, whether the grid is or a backup system is running.

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Fast-food workers

Burger-flippers have targets on their backs as fast-food executives are eager to replace them with machines.

Diners will notice reduced staffing up front as outlets turn to touch-screen kiosks for order placing while behind the scenes in the kitchen, devices will take on tasks like loading and unloading dishwashers, flipping burgers, and cooking french fries.

Humans won't be totally out of the picture — the machines will require supervision and maintenance, and dissatisfied customers will need appeasing. But jobs will plummet.

College textbooks

By the end of this decade, digital formats for tablets and e-readers will displace physical books for assigned reading on college campuses, The Kiplinger Letter is forecasting. K–12 schools won’t be far behind, though they’ll mostly stick with larger computers as their platform of choice.

Digital texts figure to yield more bang for the buck than today’s textbooks. Interactive software will test younger pupils’ mastery of basic skills such as arithmetic and create customized lesson plans based on their responses.

Older students will be able to take digital notes and even simulate chemistry experiments when bricks-and-mortar labs aren’t handy.

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The clutch pedal

Every year it seems that an additional car model loses the manual transmission option.

The decline of the manual transmissionhas been decades in the making, but two factors are, ahem, accelerating its demise:

Number one: Automatics, developed by firms such as Borg-Warner, ZF Friedrichshafen and Aisin, are getting more efficient, with up to nine gear ratios, allowing engines to run at the lowest, most economical speeds.

Many Mazdas and some BMWs, among others, now score better fuel mileage with an automatic than with a stick.

Number two: Among high-performance cars, such as Porsches, “automated” manual shifts are taking hold.

They use electronics to control the clutch instead of your left foot.

You can select the gears with paddles, or just let the computer take care of that, too.

The result: shifting is faster than even for the most talented clutch-and-stick jockey, improving the cars' acceleration numbers. Plus, the costs on these are coming down, and they can now be found in less-expensive sporty cars, such as the Golf GTI.

Even the biggest of highway trucks are abandoning the clutch and stick for automatics, for fuel-efficiency gains and to attract drivers who won’t need to learn how to grind their way through 18-plus gears.

Some price-leader economy models, such as the Nissan Versa and Ford Fiesta, will list manuals on their cheapest configurations (though few will actually sell), and a segment of enthusiast cars, such as the Ford Mustang and Mazda Miata MX-5, will continue to offer the traditional three-pedal arrangement for some years to come.