WI-FI on buses; cyber divide now a chasm and AI traffic lights

I don’t think people take their laptops on buses, and if they do, they never take them out. No, buses, especially in my neck of the woods, are the reserve of smart phones, and people eating hot spicy food with plastic forks. This observation has come to mind as this week in Barcelona, the whole city bus fleet has been WI-FI enabled in the march towards seamless connectivity.

While you don’t see much call for laptops on a bus, on a train, you’re spoiled for choice with the plethora of digital devices on hand with laptops featuring highly.

My bugbear now is that when I commute to London, while the connectivity is pretty much tickety boo, it’s the furniture that’s ruining my experience.

The new rolling stock on my line has no pull down panels on the backs of seats, and as for tables, well there’s not one to be seen. Ever tried working from a real lap with a laptop on a train? It’s tricky, slippery and vastly irritating. So for that hour plus journey, work involves the fine act of balancing your machine rather than just getting on with the work.

Even the most rudimentary kind of data would communicate to the powers that be that commuters on their way to work have laptops which they would like to use. A pull down table would be just the thing!

Good design is about form and function working together. Obviously on my train, it’s all about negative manufacturing – stripping away to cut costs and cram more jaded bodies on board.

One vehicle that will of course marry form and function into something sublime is bound to be Apple’s driverless vehicle. The tech giant has been given the green light to test-drive its self-driving vehicles on real Californian roads.

Whether Apple is developing the actual vehicles, creating whole world of in-vehicle immersive entertainment, or both, isn’t quite clear, but I for one, can’t wait to see what’s on offer.

Melony Rocque

Editor