The original call
Original year: 2019
2026 assessment
Scorecard verdict: Live / early
Live and arriving, but earlier on the curve than the buildings. Instrumented bridges, sensor-laden highways, connected traffic infrastructure and structural-health monitoring are all real in 2026, and the wave of 21st-century infrastructure investment — EV charging, distributed grid, 5G — is exactly the build-out I described. But the seamless car-to-road-to-light-pole conversation is still patchy and regional, not universal. Right trend, still mid-build.