Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and The University of Michigan are now working together on a project that involves bringing cloud systems to cars. The service would be an add-on to Microsoft and Ford’s partnership on the Sync system. Sync is an in-car communications and entertainment system. Sync allows you to command your car to perform certain tasks using your voice.
The project between The U of M and Ford has the code-name American Journey 2.0. This will give U of M students the opportunity to work with a development operating system that could possibly benefit future Ford customers. “Already with Sync we have proven that we can access information in the cloud,” stated Ford head of infotronics Venkatesh Prasad. The infotronics division at Ford is part of the Research & Advanced Engineering department. “This research gives us the opportunity to harness the power of student innovation to explore beyond those capabilities and develop what’s next. We want the students to get creative and develop ways to responsibly connect the car to communicate and share with the outside world.”
“What excites me about this project is that it gives our students the opportunity to unleash their creativity using cutting-edge technologies that connect the vehicle and the cloud,” added U of M associate professor Dr. Jason Flinn.
American Journey 2.0 will be divided into two phases. The first phase involves testing and attempting to break the system by running several applications. During the second phase, an in-vehicle connectivity platform will be built.
After the platform is done, a competition will be held. The judges of the competition include representatives from Microsoft, Ford, the U of M, Maker Faire, and several others. The winning application developers will install their software in a Ford Fiesta at the Maker Faire DIY convention.
Xiang Dong (Mike) Yu is a Chinese employee that worked at Ford Motor Company for about 10 years (1997-2007). Before he left the company, Yu is believed to have stolen about 4,000 confidential documents. Yu has recently been indicted for the crime.
When Yu left Ford, he accepted a job with Foxconn PCE Industry Inc. and possibly passed some of the documents over. Some of the documents were related to system design specifications for Engine/Transmission Mounting Subsystems, Electric Power Supplies, Generic Body Modules, etc. Yu is also believed to have sold the documents to a Chinese automotive company. Yu was arrested at the Chicago O’Hare airport when he exited a flight from China.
Each count could be worth up to a decade in prison. He may also be fined $250,000.
Ford Motor Company is unveiled one of the most high tech features I’ve seen in a car. Ali Jammoul, Chief Engineer of Chassis at Ford is giving a video demo of the Active Park Assist feature in the Lincoln MKS.
When finding a parking spot, the Active Park System takes over the wheel. Instructions about when to reverse and accelerate the car appear on the dashboard.
The Active Park System works by pressing a button, turning on the blinker, driving past the parking space, and then the system takes over. The Active Park System in the Ford cars use ultrasound sensors whereas other cars that have a similar feature uses cameras.
I just had to give props to Matt Burns for this project from one Michigander to another. Matt Burns of Swartz Creek and his wife Rhyannon is hitting the road with a Ford Fusion hybrid. He will be starting from the home of Ford’s headquarters Dearborn, Michigan and making his way to San Francisco, California.
During the 10 day trip, Burns will be tweeting, texting, blogging, and talking on his web cam as he makes his way across the country. Burns, 25, is a former salesman at Circuit City. Through working at CrunchGear, Burns is able to work from home.
“I thought I was in for it in the beginning when he said he was going to stay home and write,” stated Rhyannon Burns in an interview with MLive.com. “It’s a chance you take, not the typical job somebody has. But I had faith in him he’d take care of us and he has.”
Burns is one out of seven bloggers that will be delivering Ford Fusions to media fleets in other cities. Burns is a former TV editor with EngadgetHD.com as well.
Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has made an unorthodox move to help promote their Flex line of cars. Ford created an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone application called Flex Photo Lab. The application is free. iPod Touch and iPhone users can use the app to adjust photo brightness, contrast, hue, image saturation, glow effects, and kaleidoscope effects.
“Flex consumers love new technology, and we know that a lot of them have iPhones, so we wanted to offer them a free application that is both a cool and useful tool,” stated Usha Raghavachari, Ford Crossover marketing communications manager in a Ford press release.
To create this application, Ford worked with the Tao Agency, a Kentucky-based software media company.
Built into the app is a feature called “Discover Flex” where iPhone and iPod Touch users can look around the features of the Ford Flex automobile through built in 360-degree exterior/interior views, vehicle info, and photo gallery.
