Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Image: campuspartycolumbia
Technological innovations in Australian public transport are progressing so rapidly and are becoming such an envy of the world, they’re attracting some of the globe’s biggest tech megastars to come and talk about how to make it even better.
One of those is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who will join other high-profile gurus from the tech industry including Microsoft managing director Pip Marlow, digital futurist Chris Riddell and Intel global managing director Val Stoyanov among others at a key industry event created by the New South Wales government.
This event will be the Future Transport Summit 2016 to take place on 18th-19th April at Australian Technology Park in Sydney, which is a part of a 12-month ‘Future Transport’ program, including a youth summit and new partnerships with incubators to stay across emerging ideas and products.
The announcement about Mr Wozniak was made by NSW Minister for Transport Andrew Constance, who said he would headline the summit to help uncover the next big ideas set to transform the transport system
Mr Constance said the future is clearly being driven by technology and the government is not prepared to sit around waiting to see what that means for transport customers.
“We’ve got big data happening, Opal, ridesharing and the advent of the driverless car around the corner – I want to work with those in-the-know to get a better grasp of what’s coming next and how we can adapt,” Mr Constance said.
He said the summit is a way to start thinking about how we’re going to get people in towns and cities across NSW from point A to point B using the latest advances in technology from around the world.
“With the population set to jump by around 2 million people in the next 20 years and technology moving faster than ever before, we’ve got to get ahead of the game,” Mr Constance said.
Mr Wozniak said he was excited to be heading to Sydney for the summit to talk all things innovation, technology and transportation.
“Technology is moving so rapidly and if organisations want to remain relevant, they need to look to the future,” Mr Wozniak said.
He firmly warned that if they simply keep doing things the way they’ve always been done, they risk getting blindsided by the latest disruptive technologies.
“Technology is already having a massive impact on transportation and that will only intensify,” Mr Wozniak said.
Say what you might about Apple products, since a huge chunk of the smartphone market prefers alternative operating systems such as Android, Windows or Blackberry, but Mr Wozniak is still keen to give the company a small plug.
“It won’t be long before everyone will be turning to self-driving cars and using their Apple watch to tap onto the bus,” he said.
“The possibilities are endless.”
