Samsung 'Safety Truck' Makes It Easier For Drivers To See The Road Ahead Before Trying To Pass

It’s as simple as that: a wireless camera attached to the front of the truck, films the oncoming traffic, and sends the image to a video wall made out of four exterior monitors located on the back.

This way, the driver stuck behind the vehicle can have a better understanding of whether is safe to overtake or not.

A brilliant idea that seems obvious in retrospect: thing is, nobody had ever tested something similar to what Asian technology behemoth Samsung has been experimenting with recently.

If implemented, the system could be a game-changer. A pilot test was run in Argentina, one of the countries with the most dangerous roads in the world, with 12.4 road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year, according to the 2014 editionof the Road Safety Annual Report.

Most of these accidents occur on two-lane roads and particularly in situations of overtaking; so this kind of technology could indeed prove something of a boon for drivers.

“Another advantage of the Safety Truck,” the Korean manufacturer writes in a post on Samsung Tomorrow (the Samsung Electronics official global blog), “is that it may reduce the risk of accidents caused by sudden braking or animals crossing the road.”

There’s even a night vision mode to allow the system to be fully functional after sunset.It’s worth considering, though, whether staring at a screen at night time could be a good thing or not. Could it actually be a source of distraction, with the system ending up causing more problems than it actually proposes to solve? And what kind of effect could such an intense light have on the driver’s eyes?

Another possible issue: what would happen, in case of bad weather, to the screens, or to the camera on the front bumper. Would they still be reliable?

For better or worse, anyway, for now the ‘safety truck’ is just a brilliant concept: the one tested in Argentina was simply a prototype, enough to confirm that the technology actually works, and it’s no longer operational.

The next step, the company says, is to perform the “corresponding tests in order to comply with the existing national protocols and obtain the necessary permits and approvals.”

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Apple co founder says... Apple Should Work With Google and Samsung 11-04

Steve Wozniak: Apple Should Work With Google and Samsung

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said in a recent interview that if he was still at the Cupertino, Calif. company, it would be working with one of its biggest rivals, Google.

Wozniak told the BBC   that Apple would be more powerful if it had a good professional relationship with Google. Apple would be able to improve services such as voice-assistant software Siri (thanks to Google's search-engine ties) and even develop better wearable tech, such as smartwatches and augmented-reality glasses, Wozniak said.

"I wish to God that Apple and Google were partners in the future," he added.

But when asked how likely it would be for the two competitors to team up, Wozniak said, "I don't know. If I were there, it would be pretty likely."

But the Apple co-founder later backtracked, saying, "I'm probably wrong — there's probably an awful lot I don't know about the business concerns, and one thing you've got to remember is a company has always got to make money."

In some areas, Apple's software isn't as strong as Android, particularly when it comes to voice-recognition assistant Siri, Wozniak claimed.

"Sometimes I say 'Go to Joe's Diner' and [Siri] doesn't know where Joe's Diner is. And very often usually I find out that Android does," he said. "That is actually the future of intelligence probably for computers getting smarter and getting artificial intelligence."

Wozniak also discussed how developing partnerships with rivals, including Samsung, would open up more opportunities for greater innovation.

"There are good things I see on Samsung phones that I wish were in my iPhone," he said. "I wish Apple would use them and could use them, and I don't know if Samsung would stop us."

By cross-licensing and sharing technology, he believes all products would improve.

"We'd go further," Wozniak said. "I do wish they were more compatible. I believe you should have a world where you've got to license something at a fair price."

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Google, Samsung, Microsoft Head A Tech-Dominated List of The Most 'Meaningful' Brands 06-30

Google, Samsung, Microsoft Head A Tech-Dominated List of The Most 'Meaningful' Brands

Technology giants Google , Samsung, and Microsoft head the 2013 Meaningful Brand Index, compiled by Havas Media. The index measures 12 areas of consumer well-being, including health, happiness, and financial. Also among the top five were Nestle and Sony .

To create the Index, Havas Media measured 700 brands and more than 134,000 consumers in 23 countries. Brands were chosen on the basis of global as well as regional significance and ad spend.

Technology companies have gained significance since the last Index was released in 2011, while traditional retailers have surrendered some ground.

“What the results tell us is that tech companies have done some powerful things over the last few years to focus on people’s lives and they’re starting to reap the benefits of that,” said Umair Haque, director of Havas Media Labs. “It’s possible to move up and down these scales pretty radically in a short period of time.”

Havas’ research also indicates that the top 25 meaningful brands outperform stock markets by 120 percent, commensurate with top hedge funds. Haque says that those brands doing best are those understood to be providing the most well-being to shareholders and consumers.

“For every dollar that consumers invest, brands are going to have to deliver more human well-being to them,” said Haque. “In that kind of environment, institutions have to understand that every dollar or euro or pound has to result in more concrete human benefit for people, and if it doesn’t people simply won’t trust those brands anymore.”

Unchanged since 2011 is a prevailing consumer disinterest in the vast majority of brands around the world. The majority of those surveyed worldwide say they wouldn’t care if 73 percent of brands no longer existed tomorrow, and only 20 percent of all brands are viewed as having a positive role in consumers’ lives.

Though distrust prevails globally, consumers in developing markets maintain stronger relationships to brands, with people in Latin America and Asia six times more attached to brands than consumers in the U.S. and Europe.

“In emerging markets, people trust brands more, but they also expect more from them. The challenge for brands is not to go to emerging markets and replicate the same model,” said Haque.  ”If brands don’t get smarter, five years from now, ten years from now we’ll be in a situation where 95 percent of people globally don’t trust brands.”

Ultimately, said Haque, people are responding most strongly to brands that view them as participants rather than consumers.

“People aren’t irrational in what they expect. They don’t want perfect lives—but they do want better lives,” he said. “What we consistently find is that institutions don’t meet their expectations in real human terms. When they do find companies that are willing to benefit them, they’re really happy doing business with them.”

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