Tech Tent: Cars, Drones And The Voice-controlled Fridge

Image copyright John F. Martin/Delphi

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This week's Tech Tent turned into a gadget-fest as we explored the products turning heads at the Berlin IFA tech fair, the drones delivering medical supplies in Africa - and the connected car data that could be used to sell you more stuff.

David Paja from the car firm Delphi explained that, in his view, the rise of autonomous cars will lead to "exponential" growth in the data they are able to generate - and his firm is keen to cash in on it.

It's essentially the smartphone business model on four wheels.

The firm has developed an internet platform that enables it to pick out valuable data, move it to the Cloud and then be shared with, in this case, an Israeli start-up partner called Otonomo which specialises in "data-brokering solutions".

"In most cases the driver will need to accept that their data is being used," he said.

Jane Wakefield reported from the TEDGlobal event in Tanzania, where robotics firm Zipline is planning to expand its drone delivery service of emergency blood supplies.

Chief executive Keller Renaudo said he was in talks to open four distribution centres in the country.

"Having an agile supply chain for healthcare makes a big difference in improving access and empowering doctors," he said.

And finally to the IFA tech fair in Berlin, where we heard about calorie-counting kitchen scales and voice activated robot fridges.

As the saying goes, they promised us flying cars....

Rory Cellan-Jones is back in the Tech Tent next week.