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Volvo has set itself the difficult task of building a car that can't be crashed, but do we really want technology taking control?

By Andrew English

Volvo uses a range of sensors and cameras to collect huge amounts of data for its crash safety researchers Photo: VOLVO

You are driving along a country road, full of love for humanity but unaware that a 40-ton milk tanker is about to lumber out of a hidden side turning, just around the next corner. Your car knows, though. Sensors have identified its size and shape and predicted its course and speed. On-board computers have calculated an avoidance strategy – a quick burst of acceleration and a directional tweak.

Without any human intervention, the car speeds up slightly, the steering twitches slightly and the lorry pulls out with a couple of inches to spare. You can now concentrate on Chris Evans's breakfast show and live happily ever after.

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Google is taking on internet telephone companies like Skype by allowing users to call from its free web-based email service.

The service allows users to make calls to land lines and mobiles from inside their Gmail account.

Phoning anywhere in the US and Canada will be free until the end of the year, while calls to the UK, France, China and Germany will cost 2 cents a minute.

Until now Google offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services.

"This is a real big deal because now hundreds of millions of Gmail users can make phone calls right from their Gmail page," Craig Walker, product manager for real-time communications told BBC News.

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That much-loved family photo will now take a virtual leap out of the page after the world's first 3D camera and printing service was unveiled today.

Pictures on Fujifilm's new FinePix camera can be printed on special 3D paper, ready to be stuck into an album or be instantly viewed on the camera's built-in display.


But unlike 3D films in cinemas, special glasses do not need to be worn to experience the effect.

Larger than life: Fujifilm's Real 3D W3 camera allows users to print and view photographs in 3D

Fujilfilm's camera takes two photos simultaneously from its two lenses which are fixed a similar distance apart to human eyes.

Using 'lenticular' technology, the separate left and right eye images are interlaced on a furrowed surface to create the stereoscopic illusion.

The method has been around since the 1940s and was typically used on novelty items and stickers, featuring simple two-frame animations such as a winking eye.

However, the old technology is now being used in a wave of state-of-the-art 3D products, games consoles and billboard posters.

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