An airline may think it has an answer to jet lag. The catch: the traveler would have to swallow a 'digital pill.' British Airways has applied for a patent for 'controlling a travel environment' by obtaining passenger data, most notably from sensors, some of which would be ingested by the passenger. The idea is that airline personnel on board would know when the passenger is awake, asleep, hungry, hot or cold and could, at least conceptually, attend to those needs at the most appropriate time.

Forget about a future of connected and driverless cars where messaging and other services are made available on in-case screens to people who sit in cars they used to drive. It's actually the driverless truck that is moving along at full speed, with a just successfully completed 35-mile highway test of a truck that drove itself in Ohio.

Anyone overly concerned about dealing with self-driving cars while they are out and about may have plenty of time before having to worry. That doesn't mean that connected cars aren't disrupting the automotive ecosystem, allowing the car and its occupants to be directly connected to the Internet, enabling automated links to other connected devices, like smartphones, tracking devices, other vehicles and even home appliances, based on a new study.

Any consumers who haven't heard about smart homes and smart devices are getting a crash education through marketing to holiday shoppers. In the latest example, the entire front cover of the Bed Bath & Beyond mailer features smart home gifts, with photos of Philips smart light bulbs and starter kit, a Nest thermostat and Nest smoke detector.

For smart home devices being bought this holiday season, the hottest tickets seem to be in connected things that deal with security in one form or another. Smart doorbell cameras, surveillance cameras, security systems and smart detectors will lead the way, based on a new report. The top connected thing will be the video doorbell, according to the Argus Insights forecast in CEPro.

Well before advertising enters the solo driverless car, it will spread to screens facing drivers in the back seats of cars. And those cars are more likely to be ride-sharing vehicles, like Uber and Lyft. When consumers are asked what comes to mind when they hear the term 'shared mobility service,' almost all (96%) select Uber, according to a new survey.

Cars are getting connected, marketers are inventing new ways to get advertising and messaging to drivers and passengers in those cars and now online car sales are getting involved. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has teamed with Amazon to sell cars online with additional discounts. "The time has arrived to give consumers a new, more efficient and transparent way to choose a new vehicle," Gianluca Italia, responsible for Fiat Chrysler in Italy, said during an online press conference reported by Reuters.

Much of the focus of connected cars or autonomous driving is on details around how the car will be networked and avoid accidents along with various aspects of reliability and security. If all that gets resolved, the marketing focus will shift to how to better serve the 'driver' in a self-driving car. An early, rudimentary version of in-car video marketing can be seen in most New York taxis, where TV-type screens in the back seat play and promote to captive passengers, until they press the mute or off button.

The Internet of Things is not only a land-based phenomenon, but major brands are looking to use hundreds of drones at a time to produce messaging in one form or another. Think interactive, flying billboards. Earlier this month, Intel showed its video of 500 drones flying in formation at night in Germany. The LED lights on the drones spelled out the word 'Intel.'

Autonomous cars are about data and content, and both are coming on strong. Most consumers may not be waiting in line to buy an autonomous car but that doesn't mean a lot of money isn't flowing into the development of them. The latest financial boost is coming from Intel, to the tune of $250 million, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who announced the spend at the AutoMobility show in Los Angeles yesterday as well as in a blog post.