Hey, new Ford Fiesta owners: did you realize that your plebeian family hauler is actually one of the most geek-awesome vehicles on the road today? We were just reminded of that today on news that the latest version of Pandora for Android supports Ford Sync’s AppLink technology, a protocol that lets smartphone apps chat with your car’s entertainment system. In short, that means that you’ll be able to control Pandora with your car’s physical buttons, knobs, and doohickeys along with voice controls, hopefully giving you another great reason to keep the phone firmly planted in your pocket (or storage compartment) and your eyes on the road. The update’s available now — and while you’re downloading, you might as well start gathering paperwork for the dealer to run your credit report.
MyFord Touch, the extension of Ford Sync to an 8-inch LCD touchscreen with control of phone, audio, navigation, and climate control, was intended to make life easier and less distracting for drivers and front seat passengers. Now comes a story in industry bible Automotive News that says “some industry safety experts are unconvinced” whether the Ford and Lincoln touchscreens are easier and less distracting.
The electric version of the Ford Focus may not be launching for another year, but that hasn’t stopped Ford from unveiling the lucky cities that will get to drive the car first. The company has selected 19 cities across the U.S., which will be the first to receive the new Focus late next year.
The cities include: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Tucson, Portland, Raleigh Durham, Richmond, Seattle, and Washington.
These debut cities were chosen based on a variety of criteria, including the current EV infrastructure as well as the population’s history of buying electric and hybrid vehicles. “This is the first step in rolling out the Focus Electric,” said Ford’s Mark Fields. “As the country continues to build up its electric vehicle infrastructure and demand for the Focus Electric grows, Ford will continue to evaluate additional markets and consider making this vehicle available in more cities across the country.”
The use of a second key to unlock extra potential in a vehicle isn’t exactly new: Bugatti’s mind-blowing Veyron has a special tumbler-tickler that will let it hit 253mph; the Segway PT offers different fobs for different speeds. But such high-tech foppery on a Mustang? Yes, Ford continues to impress as the domestic marque with the techiest toys, announcing that buyers of next year’s Boss 302 can purchase an optional TracKey package, shown after the break. Take the standard black key and you’ll have a rip-roaring, 444hp monster. Take the red key, though, and you’ll see how fast that pony can run down the rabbit hole. The car detects a different RFID chip in the fob and loads a secondary, track-specific engine tune, tweaking 200 ECM parameters to boost everything from throttle response to engine braking. It’ll turn a semi-civilized muscle car into a completely track-ready beast, including launch control. When it’s time for a more leisurely cruise users can just switch back to the black key, return to daily driver status, and leave Wonderland — for a little while, at least.
If your car parks itself, you’ll lead a less stressful life, because technology-based driver assistance tools lower driver stress and increase safety, says a new MIT study sponsored by Ford. Automated parallel parking showed a reduction of 12 beats per minute in heart rate compared to parking manually, where a higher heart rate indicates elevated stress levels. In a second test, backing out of a confined space, drivers on their own sometimes missed crossing traffic and failed to stop, but never when the car’s cross-traffic alert system was enabled.
Looking to spend a little quality time with your ride this weekend? If you just plunked down for a 2011 Chevrolet or Cadillac, and you just so happen to own an Android or iOS-based phone, you can now download the myChevrolet, myCadillac, and OnStar MyLink mobile phone apps that were duly introduced last month. We’re told that the Buick and GMC versions will be launched in November, with the whole crew enabling owners to access vehicle-specific information, vehicle diagnostics, and even lock / unlock the doors. There’s still no word on widespread Facebook integration, but hey, baby steps… right?
Editor’s note: Wired.com contributor Jeremy Hart made a 60-day, 15,000-mile drive around the world with a few mates in a pair of Ford Fiestas. This is the last of his occasional reports from the road on the gadgets he drive-tested.
Feng shui master Kenny Hoo recommended we leave his home town of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 8:28 a.m. Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture. Why not 8:08 a.m.? I did not ask.
Maybe I should have, because no sooner had we crossed into Singapore for the last part of the Asian leg of the Fiesta World Tour that I realized we had left our Spot Tracker in Malaysia. So with no chance to turn back, I am afraid our “live” positioning device has reported us stuck in Malaysia, not where we really are in Australia.
As I write this, the smell of the Pacific Ocean fills the Australian air. Sydney, our final destination after 57 days, 21 countries and 15,000 miles round the world, is just over the horizon.
Most Canadians live within a few hundred miles of the U.S. border. In Oz, the same is true of the ocean. That leaves 3,000 miles of nothing in the middle. It’s called the Outback, and to my mind, it is the real Australia.
The Outback is not a place to go unprepared. You must venture into the bush with enough supplies to survive. In addition to water, our key survival tool was the Iridium satellite phone. Mobile coverage in this never-never-land is almost non-existent. The Iridium kept the expedition on the road and us safe for the eight days across the Red Centre.
I had to put away the Huawei E5 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot as, with virtually no mobile signal, it was as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Remoteness brings other problems: Like the most basic human needs. Aussies call toilets “dunnies,” and with hundreds of miles between dunnies, getting caught short is a very real threat. And the threat does not end there. Squatting in a desert inhabited by some of the world’s deadliest snakes and spiders leaves your derriere exposed, literally. So, I invested in a portable folding dunny, shown in the photo above. See it and my Outback gadgets in action in the video below.
Snakes are not the biggest threat to Outback adventurers. Kangaroos can be as big as a Fiesta and colliding with one is best avoided. One deterrent is an ultrasonic siren called a ShuRoo (for “shoo, (Kanga) roo,” I suppose). They work like moose scarers in the northern United States and Canada.
They take half an hour or so to hook up to the vehicle. And reports are they work well. Sadly, ShuRoo did not return our calls, so we did not get the chance to test one.
The most pesky critter in the bush is the fly. A single fly is not so bad. But hundreds are. So, the award for the most basic and cheapest gadget of the trip so far goes to the $8 Great Aussie Fly Net.
Of our long-term gadgets, the Handpresso continues to deliver reviving shots of caffeine. But espresso/Red Bull shooters seem the only way to keep some of us buzzing after eight weeks on the road.
The Fiesta sound system is good. It even has USB connectivity. But the guys at Singapore-based micro speaker company X-Mini gave us some of their iPod/Pad/Phone speakers to try out in Oz. The single speaker is about 50 percent bigger than a golf ball. The stereo speakers look like tiny version of the B+W Zeppelin and splits in the middle for left-right separation. The sound is punchy and punches well above its weight.
Under the awesome Southern Hemisphere stars, by a mulga-wood campfire, eating kangaroo fillets, the X-Mini’s banged out some great Aussie rock. Best track for the Outback? “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC. I’m biased. The band’s singer Brian Johnson is a mate — and a car guy like me.
“The song was written as the band crossed the Outback,” he told me. “It was hot as hell. Hence the name.”
I’ve added a film from Sydney with Brian here.
In the time I’ve written this, Sydney is coming into view. I can see the famous Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Part of me is feeling elated as to have crossed the Pacific the long way round.
The other part feels deflated. Daily life without a 500-mile drive each day will feel rather ordinary. It is time to plan the next trip.
We know how patiently you’ve been waiting for this day, but it’s here. It’s really here. Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive 7 is out, appearing in the download queues of “select car makers and suppliers in the automotive industry.” What does it offer? Why, Silverlight support for fancier UIs, real-time text-to-speech technology, and better expandability for third-party plugins. In bigger news, Microsoft is confirming that it is the brains behind the Nissan Leaf‘s Information Hub, which not only handles infotainment duties but also gives charging status and power consumption figures. Finally, the MyFord system is going global, shipping to Blue Oval vehicles in Europe and Asia in 2011. That’s after 2.5 million Sync-equipped cars have hit the road. Highway domination? Nearly complete.
Editor’s note: Wired.com contributor Jeremy Hart is making a 60-day, 15,000-mile drive around the world with a few mates in a pair of Ford Fiestas. He’s filing occasional reports from the road on gadgets he’s road-testing.
I hate to rave about any gadget now. Seems the minute I like something, it goes and fails on me.
The latest one to struggle with the vigors of the Fiesta World Tour is the Spot tracker.
It worked fine as we left Europe to cross the Bosporus for Asia. But with internet a hit-and-miss thing in places like Jordan (at the Movenpick Hotel on the Dead Sea I’ll admit we were more preoccupied with floating like a cork), I did not check if it was pinging our location every 10 minutes, as planned.
So by the time we hit fast internet at the large pink, peanut-shaped Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, I realized our trans-Arabia blast had been invisible to the orbiting satellites that are supposed to track the Spot’s progress.
Turns out the lithium batteries had run out — in a mere 10 days! I’m glad my life did not depend on the thing. So, with new juice installed, you can see now that we reached Dubai at the end of Leg 2 of our four-leg expedition to Sydney, Australia.
But, it was a close thing. We lost a crew member to a family emergency back home. With two crew and three cars for the Saudi Arabia crossing, we pulled in a good Saudi friend, Eias, to help with the driving. So: 900 miles in 14 hours. You do the math …
Eias is a gadget freak. He loved the kit we had aboard. His favorites were the iridium sat phone (it works great, but we found there is cell coverage even in the most remote corner of the Empty Quarter — they must turn sand dunes into cell towers), the plug-in Camping Gaz fridge full of cold water (it hit 125 degrees north of Riyadh), and the Handpresso machine plus accompanying plug-in kettle. This from a man with 25 motorbikes and a house full of other toys.
Making the perfect cup of espresso in the middle of the desert with the Handpresso.
“Excellent coffee,” he declared when we made him an espresso close to the Iraqi border. But sweet Arabic tea is the thing out here. A portable tea maker might sell well in Saudi.
Right now the Handpresso is up there in our top travel gadgets, too.
When it gets to 125 degrees, this plug-in fridge by Camping Gaz is a welcome friend.
Another great gadget is the Tom Tom satellite navigation app for our photographer Anthony’s iPhone. It has kept us circumnavigating when road signs and local fixers have failed. We just hope it works, as advertised, by using satellite signals, not cell coverage — otherwise Anthony’s going to owe his cell provider a pile of money.
With the family emergency for our technician, I had to nip back to London for 36 hours. Based on advice from our photographer in the upcoming China section, I picked up the Huawei E5 mobile Wi-Fi unit and plan to feed it a supply of local data SIM cards in each place we go. I will use it for the first time when we hit Hong Kong. The photographer also told me of a gadget market where we can indulge our desires. I cannot wait.
I also brought out the wireless keyboard for my iPad, in hopes of making it feel more like my trusty 15-inch MacBook Pro. The keyboard makes the iPad more friendly for a writer for sure, but I still dislike the lack of road-office support from the iPad.
I frequently want to find old files and images and trawl old e-mails for information, and it’s hard to do that with a tablet. The iPad, I conclude, is a great piece of kit for short flights or commuter train trips or a tool for viewing or showing off pictures and video. But as a mobile office for a two-month trip, it fails.
My blogs from now on will be on the MacBook Pro.
We crossed Saudi Arabia with just two cars and almost no spares. Long hours with not even a camel to say hello to brought the need for our Motorola walkietalkies into focus. Powered by the car’s USB link, they kept the intercar banter flowing.
Lastly, and another of my top gadgets, is the Flip Ultra HD. We have been using it for blogs and even for as secondary camera for our TV work. I’ve even done a short video blog for you, shot with the Flip Ultra — so now you can see us and our road-worn cars and kit in glorious high-def video — assuming you’ve got the bandwidth, that is.
When we talk about “the internet of things,” we usually begin with commercial and household applications — tracking inventory, or a lost remote. But one future of networked objects might be in public information and infrastructure: the internet of cars.
For four years, MIT’s CarTel project has been tracking the driving patterns of GPS-equipped taxis in metro Boston. The research team, led by computer scientists Hari Balakrishnan and Sam Madden, thinks we can stop spotting traffic jams after the fact with news helicopters or roadside sensors by equipping cars themselves with position sensors and wireless connections. They’ve developed a new software algorithm that optimizes information-sharing between multiple nodes on a network, when those nodes are on the move, drifting in and out of close contact with one another.
Equipping cars with position and network technology has several advantages over traditional traffic-tracking methods. It’s already here, in the form of on-board GPS systems and the RFID fobs city car-sharing programs use to track cars and give multiple drivers access to vehicles. It’s less expensive than helicopters, and less static than fixed roadside sensors. Finally, news organizations and planners can see traffic tie ups as or even before they happen, rather than after the fact.
There are potential privacy concerns. Why should I allow the Department of Transportation, my local news team, or any entity to track my movements? Collection of this information would have to be closely regulated, highly encrypted, and strictly anonymized — perhaps even initially restricted to public and publically licensed vehicles likes public transit, cabs, police/fire/rescue vehicles, or cars and trucks owned by local government. The whole point is that when it comes to plotting traffic patterns, tracking unique users simply doesn’t matter.
But the potential upsides are tremendous. Having better knowledge of actual traffic patterns could help urban planners improve their transportation infrastructure, from retiming traffic lights to restructuring bus routes. It could help first responders and ordinary drivers avoid potential tie-ups.
Researchers at Ford and Microsoft are sufficiently intrigued. They plan to test the MIT researchers’ algorithm and network design in future versions of Sync, the Redmond-designed, Detroit-implemented automotive communication and entertainment system.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Hey, new Ford Fiesta owners: did you realize that your plebeian family hauler is actually one of the most geek-awesome vehicles on the road today? We were just reminded of that today on news that the latest version of Pandora for Android supports Ford Sync’s AppLink technology, a protocol that lets smartphone apps chat with your car’s entertainment system. In short, that means that you’ll be able to control Pandora with your car’s physical buttons, knobs, and doohickeys along with voice controls, hopefully giving you another great reason to keep the phone firmly planted in your pocket (or storage compartment) and your eyes on the road. The update’s available now — and while you’re downloading, you might as well start gathering paperwork for the dealer to run your credit report.
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