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The world nearly came to an end recently when the O2 network crashed and people couldn't phone, text or send emails.
The outcry was astonishing. Radio phone-ins. Technology experts on the news pontificating over the horrors that had struck us. Grown men and women standing in streets, heads in hands, aghast and panicking that they were unable to function.
Yet joking apart, it's an example of how we have grown to completely rely on technology, and there were instances where businesses were losing orders, and parts of London's bicycle hire scheme, sponsored by Barclays, failed because the card payment system is linked to O2's network.
Listening to the radio, one technology expert was explaining how our reliance on 3G (which will become 4G and so on) and wireless broadband is expanding so rapidly that in years to come the impact of a network failure could be far more serious.
As we begin to rely on technological advances in vehicles, it will be interesting to see how any system failings would affect road safety, as well as health and safety law?
With wireless broadband being introduced into buses, trains and the London tube it won't be too long before we have complete national coverage and other vehicles have it too, resulting in various functions being reliant on having a connection.
In-vehicle technology is growing rapidly in terms of enabling cars to be automated in certain functions - such as self parking, lane drifting and slowing/stopping if the vehicle in front brakes.
Like all technology, applications always grow, and we're already talking about self-driving cars and 'road trains' whereby vehicles may one day follow a lead vehicle.
But as technology continues to grow, who will be liable for accidents?
If a company invested in a fleet of vehicles that had self parking systems, but the vehicle hit another car when manoeuvring will the driver, the
firm, the leasing company or the manufacturer be responsible?
I suspect everyone in the supply chain will have robust contracts so they cannot be held accountable for any incidents or injury caused by their technology. In other words, every company will be saying: "Don't blame us!"
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