More than three out of four respondents worldwide believe that the future technological progress will play the key role in combating climate change, according to the 2022 Bosch Tech Compass survey.
The Bosch Tech Compass is a representative survey of the general population in China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A total of approximately 8,000 people were surveyed online in August 2021.
The survey sought to discover how technology is affecting people’s lives. Bosch asked study participants around the world what they think about technological progress and what they expect from it in the future.
The representative survey reveals a variety of perceptions between countries and the influence of single key technologies.
Technology should support us, make life easier overall, and make the world a better place
The vast majority of respondents worldwide (72 percent) believe that technology makes the world a better place.
The positive attitude towards technological progress is most pronounced in China (87 percent) and India (83 percent) and least pronounced in Germany (51 percent).
When asked about the benefits they expect from technology for themselves, most people in the UK hope for better health (57 percent), in the US, for more safety (55 percent), and in India (62 percent) and Germany (51 percent) they expect it to make work easier.
83 percent worldwide agree that technology should be used to tackle the major challenges of our time rather than serving individual needs.
Dr Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, said: “The Bosch Tech Compass shows that people want technology that addresses the problems of our time.
“Technology should support us, make life easier overall, and make the world a better place. This is why we at Bosch are committed to technology that is ‘Invented for life’ and serves people.”
Combating climate change
More than three out of four respondents worldwide believe that the future technological progress will play the key role in combating climate change.
40 percent considers climate engineering as the technology with the best contribution to society, followed by biotechnology (38 percent) and hydrogen as well as AI (both 35 percent).
But when it comes to the question of which technologies will drive sustainability most in the future, there are regional differences: While the western countries overwhelmingly view green technologies such as hydrogen as most promising, people in China and India consider AI to have the greatest potential.
On a global base, however, every second respondent thinks that technological progress is being used sufficiently to tackle the major problems of our time.
According to all respondents worldwide, the list of technology trends with the most future relevance is clearly dominated by AI (43 percent) and 5G (42 percent).
Particular relevance is attributed to AI and 5G in China and India, while — in contrast to Asia — more relevance is attributed to self-driving cars in western countries, which ranked third (with 28 percent) on the global index.