Hasta La Gadget!

It seems like Washington and the big automakers in Detroit have gone electrification crazy. Everyone is working on the electrification of the automobile industry with more hybrids and pure electric vehicles being researched and produced all around the world. The push for electrification is to save drivers at the pump, help the environment, and to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Ford is talking about its significant investment in electrification with its Electrification Center of Excellence boasting 285,000 square feet of research and development space. Ford states that it now has over 1000 engineers working on vehicle electrification, which is the highest number of engineers on the project ever. Ford has added 60 new engineers over the last year and dozens more will be added in the year ahead.

Most of those 1000 engineers are located under one roof at the newly dedicated Advanced Electrification Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford has also announced that it will double its battery testing capabilities by 2013. The increased focus on battery testing will accelerate hybrid and electric vehicle development by as much as 25%.

Ford invested $135 million in the design, engineering, and production of key components, including advanced battery systems for next-generation hybrid vehicles that will go into production this year. Ford’s battery testing capability will increase to 160 individual battery test channels by 2013. This will be accomplished by adding some highly specialized machines that are able to test and simulate things like battery performance and battery pack thermal behavior over a range of temperatures and possible operating conditions.

Ford invests in electrification big time is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ford has announced a new and very interesting app is now available for drivers who own vehicles supporting Sync AppLink. The app is called Roximity and was the winner of the Ford Sync App Developer Challenge held at the 2011 Disrupt Hackathon. The app is available for iOS devices and adds some very interesting functionality for drivers.

Roximity is a location aware service that lets drivers know about deals offered at surrounding businesses as they drive. The idea is to let you know if a shop you’re about to drive by has a special on an oil change or if that pizza place up the block is having a sale that you might want to stop in and try out. Users of the app can enter individual preferences and interests so the app can tailor the offers it shows to their specific needs.

Roximity requires that the user connect their iPhone to Sync via USB and activate AppLink. Once the iPhone is connected to the car via the USB port, the driver can use their voice to ask the app to offer any special deals nearby in specific retail categories. The designated retail categories include restaurants, home services, spas and salons, and men’s or women’s clothing.

Ford also points out that Roximity is the first app to have AppLink compatibility at launch. The app is available at no cost and will be offered for other devices. The app developers say that as the user interacts with Roximity it will learn their preferences and patterns to offer more deals. The user does have complete control over the number of deals the app reports each day or week. The app also has the ability to announce deals verbally so drivers don’t have to take their eyes off the road.

Ford Roximity location aware deals app now available is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ford claims that their C-Max Energy, their very first attempt at a plug-in hybrid, is capable of delivering quite the powerful electric punch for those who have nothing but disdain for electric vehicles. Ford Powertrain VP Joseph Bakaj had a session with reporters, where he mentioned, “In that mode, we will be able to offer a top speed of up to 85 miles per hour, a range of more than twenty miles, an extended range of 550 miles in blended operations. That is a best in class range for an extended hybrid here in the U.S.” It sure as heck sounds impressive!

Ford’s C-Max Energi is tipped to make its bow in 19 markets later this fall, where it will arrive in showrooms around the country from early next year onwards. As for the pricing, as long as you have $30,000 or so in your bank account, you should have no issues driving one home to your garage. The Ford C-Max Energi will be a direct competitor to the plug-in version of Toyota’s Prius.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Reserve your Ford Focus Electric today, Nissan NV200 electric cab to hit the streets of London in 2014,

Researchers all around the world are teaming up with automotive manufacturers and battery manufacturers to attempt to design improvements in battery packs that will help electric vehicles drive farther. GE, Ford, and the University of Michigan are all working together on a new project with the goal of extending battery life for EVs. Longer battery life equates to a longer driving distance for electric vehicles.

The researchers working on the project are attempting to develop smart, miniaturized sensing systems with the goal of extending the life of the battery pack inside the EV or hybrid significantly over the conventional systems in use today. GE will be using its ultrathin battery sensor system with sophisticated modeling of cell behavior to control and optimize battery management systems in EVs. Sensors are used inside electric vehicles today to measure the health of the battery and look at factors such as temperature, voltage, and current.

The small size of the sensors GE is using allows sensors to be placed in areas of the battery where the larger existing sensor technology commonly used today can’t be located. The smaller sensors will enable a better understanding of battery performance and life inside current EVs. The data generated by the GE sensors will be used by scientists at the University of Michigan to verify their advanced battery models.

The data will also allow the scientists to create schemes that use instantaneous sensor data to predict future battery cell and battery pack behavior. Once the researchers develop the systems, Ford will place the new system in one of its electric vehicles for validation. This project is a three-year $3.1 million program and the goal is to demonstrate a working system inside an actual electric vehicle.

“The car battery remains the greatest barrier and most promising opportunity to bringing EVs mainstream.” said Aaron Knobloch, principal investigator and mechanical engineer at GE Global Research. “Improvements in the range, cost and life of the battery will all be needed for EVs to be competitive. With better sensors and new battery analytics, we think we can make substantial progress at increasing battery life. This, in turn, could help bring down its overall cost and the cost entitlement of buying an electric car.”

GE, Ford, and the University of Michigan team up to extend EV battery life is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ford Motor Company has made no secret of the fact that it wants to allow drivers to be able to manage certain aspects of their health while driving. That may sound odd, but consider how much time many people spend the car stuck in traffic, being able to manage health conditions while in your vehicle might be a good thing for some people. One of the ways Ford is helping people manage their health while in the car is via Sync Voice Control.

Sync Voice Control works with Ford Sync AppLink enabled vehicles where drivers can launch apps and use them via voice commands, never having to touch their mobile device. Ford has announced that drivers can now access the Allergy Alert app using AppLink. This is a big deal for the millions of people around the world who suffer from allergies or asthma.

The Allergy Alert app allows drivers to get the current forecast for allergens, pollen, asthma, flu, and UV conditions while driving. Knowing what sort of allergens are in the air in a strange location is a big deal for drivers who suffer from asthma. Using the app and AppLink drivers can use their voice to get details from the application, including current location updates, specific pollens that are in the air, and asthma score on a scale of 0 to 12.

To get the details the driver can simply say “pollen” and get a rundown of what specific pollens are in the air, the command “Flu” gives details on the current and upcoming flu index, saying “UV” will tell the driver about the UV risk for the day. The driver can also enter three zip codes into the application settings to get statistics about different areas using their voice.

“We are attempting to create the car that cares,” says Gary Strumolo, global manager of Ford Research and Innovation. “We want to change the paradigm that in-car connectivity systems such as SYNC can only be used for information and entertainment purposes. Health and wellness are key issues for our customers outside of the car; therefore, we want to leverage our connectivity platform to improve their time behind the wheel. The trend in mobile health is all about knowing potential health concerns before they happen so that they don’t surprise a person, even while driving.”

Ford Sync Voice Control now supports Allergy Alert App is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.