How about drivers just focusing on the road ahead and not on the gizmos on the dashboard?
If, while driving, the technology improves driver attention then fine and I do not care what other bells and do funnies are available while the car is parked. Go for it!
However, I am disturbed or amused by some of the names.
As one who writes numerous programs for micro-controllers I would not pick “Bug Labs” for my company’s name. That is just so wrong.
As a conservative I would not in any way associate with a company named “Weather Underground”.
Was this from the Onion?
This is a stupid idea.
I am sick of buying hardware on top of hardware and subscriptions for each that I own.
Device convergence is the future and that device will most likely be your mobile phone.
Vehicles like the new Dodge Dart have a user-customized dashboard that allows you to arrange the gauges any way you want. This is the future.
I do not need another GPS chip, my phone has one. I do not need a 3G connection, my phone has one.
I need my vehicle to interface with my phone. A simple application that allows me to see vehicle info and unlock the doors from my phone is perfect.
Then, I want my Sirius subscription to follow my phone. Whatever car I sit in can use that subscription. If I have IHeartRadio, then that follows me.
I have an AT&T dataplan. I want my car to use that for information such as traffic alerts, weather alerts and navigation.
Again, a simple application would customize the dashboard to something familiar. I would know where all the controls are placed and how everything works.....whether I get in my own car, my wife’s car or a rental car.
This is possible NOW and can be rolled out easily. It promoted safety through familiarity and eliminates multiple subscriptions to multiple services and overlapping hardware that is unnecessary.
Now we're talkin'.
Uhmm, this sounds like a very bad idea to me; any one want to see their cars - or their neighbors’ cars - being hacked?
No chance that the government won't find a way to use this....oh no, they never would think of using that information. /s
Thanks for posting. I work in this area. They’re going to have to be very careful with this. With new safety systems being added to vehicles every day this provides a means of compromising them. There’s already ISO26262 to address “safety” wrt automotive software, which may soon be law (2013 for Europe I believe). I’m not sure how this will go down once somebody does a bad thing and causes an incident. Then there’s when a car is sold to another consumer, what has been done to it?
Because we all know that there aren’t already enough gizmos to distract the driver.
I have to disagree with most of everyone here.
This is a brilliant move by Ford.
An open platform is the reason why Microsoft was beating Apple for many years, despite an inferior product. It allowed third parties to introduce a wide variety of applications.
The applications for the car may or may not interfere with one’s ability to drive. I’d guess that the more popular applications will actually improve on your ability to drive:
- voice activation
- heads up displays
- live traffic reports
- live gas station reports (”where is the cheapest gas within 5 miles?”)
I think it is great that Ford recognizes that it doesn’t have a monopoly on ideas and brains. This will only enhance the desire to own a Ford.
And if you don’t trust the add-ons (the gizmos)...then you don’t have to buy them.
(1938 Aston Martin, and sadly, no, it is not my car)
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I wonder what that baby will cost?
Why doesn’t Detroit/Japan/Germany build a car like we used to have that gave 40 to 60 mpg with a simple carburatored engine? Similar to the old Honda Civics and others.
The new cars don’t give as high a mileage as my old ones. Check some 1968 mileages.