There is a lot being written today about the internet of things, and how technology will change our relationship with machines.  It is happening around us so quickly - but are we truly aware of where this is going.  One example of this change is in vehicles.  Most cars today are keyless - in fact when I recently got into a car that required a key I had to rethink how to start it.  And the technology that today's cars come with is improving exponentially - lane departure warnings, blind spot warnings, bluetooth connectivity to smart phones - even auto parking.  With all the trials taking place, it will not be too long before all vehicles are self drive (though the challenges of for instance lane filtering still need to be sorted - driverless cars don't take risks, so sit at merging roads waiting for a big enough gap - that never materialises...).  But beyond the automobile, there is still so much opportunity to do more with technology.  I get frustrated with the time it is taking to turn the vision of automated super market check outs into reality (check out the You Tube video that was put out by IBM in 2006: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk ).  Home automation is also changing - but too slowly to make a real difference in our lives yet - again the vision that was announced some ten years ago (automated shopping via fridges; smart controls around the house) is taking a long time to get to reality.  And even around food sourcing - the ability to track our food from farm to fork exists so we fully understand its provenance - but few companies are investing in the technology to help protect our food chain.

So what is stopping us progressing the Internet of Things in a faster way?  Is it vested interests that don't want to see dramatic change (an interesting example here is how the simple mobile phone has turned every car into a taxi - and the lengths the taxi industry is going to to stop that progression).  Or is it that the technology that promised so much still is failing to deliver (like product level RFID).  Whatever it is, it is in all our interests to push for a better connected world that will free up the excessive time we spend doing things we don't need to  - and indeed, make the world a smarter, safer place....