Hasta La Gadget!

Imagine how many accidents could be avoided if we all had perfect X-Ray vision — assuming, of course, that everyone could refrain from being distracted by all the naked pedestrians. Drivers would never be surprised by rapidly slowing traffic, cars broken down around blind curves, or autos zooming into blind spots. No matter how many ads we respond to in the back of Mad Magazine we’ll never have that, but Ford has an alternative with its Intelligent Vehicle Research: cars that simply rely on GPS and a wireless data connection to beam their location and speed to each other.

Autos alert their drivers when a car at the front of a convoy is rapidly decelerating or when there’s a broken down rig right around the next bend. Interestingly the tech is using WiFi, not cellular data, so range is somewhat limited, but still far enough to warn drivers with blinking lights or trigger an automatic-braking system. It’s all demonstrated in the video after the break and, while there are no crazy platooning stunts like Volvo recently showed off, we have to figure that’s coming in version 2.0.

Continue reading Ford’s intelligent vehicles communicate wirelessly, shoot hula hoops out of tailpipes (video)

Ford’s intelligent vehicles communicate wirelessly, shoot hula hoops out of tailpipes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To us, MyFord Touch is a great way to manage your auto: four-way controllers on the steering wheel for navigating through simple, color-coded menus; a central touch panel; even voice recognition so that you can live out those Michael Knight fantasies. However, some folks, folks who apparently didn’t spend their childhoods mashing thumbs into D-pads, are finding it all a little confusing. Consumer Reports recently railed against the system and Ford is looking to make the transition from knobs to buttons a little easier. Many dealers now offering tutorial sessions that owners of Touch-equipped cars can attend, a 45 minute thrill ride that’ll let you and your salesman get just that much closer. Because, really, after we finally finish haggling and sign the paperwork there’s nothing we want to do more than spend another hour in the dealership.

Dealers holding MyFord Touch classes for confused car owners originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday we saw the junk in the trunk, now here’s what’s powering it. It’s the motor that makes the Ford Focus Electric go, and while we still don’t know many details (we couldn’t get anyone to quote us a weight) it is a reasonably compact little thing. We did, however, get confirmation that it will not be run through either a standard transmission, like the dry-clutch automatic that the regular Focus comes with, nor something like the two-speed transmission that Tesla uses in its Roadster. It’ll be “like a CVT” we’re told, keeping the motor at its most efficient RPM, and while we’re not sure what that looks like on the inside we’re sure that there’ll be no shifting involved, neither manual nor automatic.

Ford Focus Electric motor extracted, split asunder, coppery guts exposed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, we’re fresh from sampling Ford’s next evolutions of MyFord, the Mobile and AppLink systems, but those are due to start hitting cars in the next months and years. Sometimes it’s fun to look a little further down the road, and that’s what the company’s Veritek concept is doing, giving us a taste of exterior styling to come in the company’s C-segment cars (like the C-MAX), plus a taste of some future innovations in the drivetrain department, most notable being an alternator that boosts its output under braking to provide a regenerative-like effect despite this not being a hybrid.

While the exterior is quite striking — showing clean, sharp, dynamic lines and the impossibly small mirrors of a concept — it’s the interior that caught our eye. Yes, futuristic interiors like these rarely look little like their subsequent production successors, but we can get get some ideas of what Ford is looking at going forward, starting with what looks like an LCD (or possibly OLED) gauge cluster, something that’s increasingly common now. The concept still has MyFord five-way controllers on the steering wheel stalks, but nestled down between the seats and duplicated on the dash is an Audi MMI or iDrive-like jog wheel. Interestingly there’s the silhouette of what can only be an iPhone displayed on the center, perhaps giving an indicator of where the current media is coming from. We’ll see if we can track the thing down on the show floor and find out.

Continue reading Ford’s Veritek concept gives us an idea of what the company’s future dashboard might look like

Ford’s Veritek concept gives us an idea of what the company’s future dashboard might look like originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford just made some tire marks on the stage at CES unveiling its Focus Electric, the first new major vehicle announced at the show. We of course knew it was coming, and we have all the details right here of both the car itself and the MyTouch Mobile app, but we were given an opportunity to get up and close with them both. Click on through for some impressions — both in visual and textual formats.

Continue reading Ford Focus Electric and MyFord Mobile hands-on (video)

Ford Focus Electric and MyFord Mobile hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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