The Big Tech Show

What’s the story with self-driving cars coming to Ireland? How will it all affect insurance? Will middle-aged men be able to bear giving up ‘control’ of their ‘rides’? And which cars already have significant self-driving capabilities?

Adrian sits down with two people who know all about it, Geraldine Herbert (Sunday Independent and editor of wheelsforwomen.ie) and Philip McNamara, co-founder of Mobility X, which is looking at the near future for autonomous vehicles.

The panel also look at the problems being faced with electric cars in Ireland, particularly why Irish people won’t buy them. And there’s a discussion on the very worst type of passengers which you might get stuck with.

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Communications Minister Denis Naughten sits down with Adrian and Fearghal O’Connor to talk of plans to make high speed broadband an “enforceable legal right” in Ireland.

The Roscommon TD also says that a new mobile coverage map for Ireland will become available at the end of the year, showing where all the blackspots are.

And after weeks of controversy, Minister Naughten also answers a few questions about media plurality in Ireland and when a ministerial opinion differs from a personal opinion when talking on the phone.

Other topics covered include the struggle of electric cars in Ireland, why the Minister himself doesn’t drive one and the future of Eir.

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This week Adrian sits down with the Emmy award-winning Boston tycoon who is the last man standing in Ireland’s controversial National Broadband Plan – Enet chairman David McCourt. Joined by Sunday Independent deputy editor Fearghal O’Connor, they discuss politics, Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie and the prospects for rural Ireland.

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In this episode, Adrian talks about digital consent, kids, Facebook, privacy and all points in between with Dylan Collins, the Tipperary founder and chief executive of SuperAwesome, a ‘kid tech’ company he founded five years ago and which is now valued at over $100m.

Adrian and Dylan debate some basic truths about the internet and social media, and also look Mark Zuckerberg’s performance in front of the US Congress during the week.

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This week, Adrian is joined by the CTO of Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair. John Hurley talks about the barrier to putting wifi in the planes, those trumpet noises and whether Ryanair can really become the “Amazon of travel”. He also explains why, despite things like reserved seating now on offer, Ryanair won’t ever be getting into ‘business class’. The Sunday Independent’s deputy business editor, Fearghal O’Connor, is on hand to keep things civilised.

The panel also unbox Apple’s new sixth generation iPad and wonder aloud why telecoms executives and aviation executives tend to wear the same clothes.

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What are the rules when it comes to dating people you work with? In tech companies, there are some interesting new guidelines emerging.

To discuss this, Adrian is joined by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan TD and Irish Independent journalist Katie Byrne.

The three also discuss the future for electric cars and whether we’re caught up in too many techno-fuelled upgrade bubbles, resulting in poor environmental practices.

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Facebook is a mess — but are we really deleting it from our lives?
Adrian is joined by outspoken privacy expert Daragh O’Brien and the group editor of Independent News & Media, Dearbhail McDonald, to talk about the fallout from the omnishambles that has been Facebook’s last week.
Is this a basic question of right and wrong? Or are there other agendas at work?
Will people really walk away from Facebook? Is the Cambridge Analytica episode a genuine tipping point for privacy law?
Tune in for a full-throated discussion with a few conspiracy theories thrown in.

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Adrian sits down with Helen Dixon, the most powerful data protection enforcer in Europe.

Dixon talks about the factors and contexts involved in dealing with the likes of Facebook, Yahoo, Google and other big firms, which are based in Ireland.

The possible birth of a national identity card is also discussed.

In a frank exchange, Dixon also refutes the claim, sometimes thrown by critics of Ireland’s data protection record, that it’s a bad thing for her office to act as a sounding board for Facebook when it wants to introduce new features.

And she also warns that the upcoming GDPR will see some significant fines landing on companies across the land.

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In this episode, Adrian sits down with journalist Roisin Kiberd and Dublin TD Noel Rock to talk about Twitter, having a social media ‘score’ and Samsung’s newest Galaxy S9 phone.

Rock talks about using Twitter as a medium and what to do when you get it wrong. The panel also looks at China’s dystopian new ‘Sesame Credit’ score where citizens are rated according to everyday tasks such as separating their bins properly.

There’s also a discussion about the controversial Personal Services Card and the impact of International Women’s Day on tech companies, while Adrian takes the panel through an unboxing of Samsung’s €1,000 Galaxy S9+ smartphone.

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Adrian sits down with DIT head of design Barry Sheehan and freelance culture journalist Roisin Kiberd to talk about whether AirBnb is helping society or damaging it.

Sheehan, who rents out his one-bed house in Dublin using AirBnb, says that it’s not detracting from the rental stock available to struggling families.

The panel also looks at the short New York Times career of Quinn Norton, whether journalists should be free to express opinions on Twitter and the new phenomenon of people picking fights with robots.

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