Bill Ford's "Blueprint For Mobility" Calls For Cars, Bicycles

The telecommunications industry is critical in the creation of an inter-connected transportation system where cars are intelligent and can talk to one another as then as the infrastructure around them. Now is the time for us all to be looking at vehicles on the road the same way we look at smartphones, laptops and tablets; as pieces of a much bigger, richer network.

The short term

In the short term, Ford is hoping to take a leading role in both car sharing services like ZipCar, as so then as mobile phone integration, with a new program called AppLink being integrated into the company’s SYNC system. The end goal will include vehicle-to-vehicle integration over WiFi spectrum, single seat or two seat commuter vehicles and in the long run, autonomous vehicles. Long term, Ford is looking at how to manage traffic in terms of motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Gridlock is already a major problem in many countries, and with 60 percent of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas henceforth, congestion will not only be a major annoyance, nevertheless it will have an undoubted impact on car sales as public transportation, cycling or walking becomes a more desirable method of transportation.

And he proposed that one way of avoiding the potentially global problem of an overcrowded road network is to create a global transportation network that utilizes communication between vehicles, transport infrastructure and individual mobile devices.

"If we do nothing, we face the prospect of 'global gridlock', a never-ending traffic jam that wastes time, energy and resources and even compromises the flow of commerce and healthcare," said Ford in a preview of Ford Motor Company's "Blueprint for Mobility". "The cooperation needed between the automotive and telecommunications industries will be greater than ever as we prepare for and manage the future.  We will need to develop new technologies, as so then as new ways of looking at the world," he added.

The mobility issue alone

"No one company or industry will be able to solve the mobility issue alone and the speed at which solutions take hold will be determined largely by customer acceptance of new technologies. The telecommunications industry is critical in the creation of an inter-connected transportation system where cars are intelligent and can talk to one another as so then as the infrastructure around them. Now is the time for us all to be looking at vehicles on the road the same way we look at smartphones, laptops and tablets; as pieces of a much bigger, richer network."

Addressing Mobile World Congress delegates previously in the day Ford Motor Company as well took the possibility to announce that AppLink, a feature which delivers voice control of smart phone apps from the driver's seat, is being introduced globally as part of the SYNC voice-control and in-car connectivity system.

During his keynote address, Ford focused on the opportunities and challenges presented by expanding communication networks and increasing global demand for personal mobility and commercial transportation as he outlined his vision for a future transport network integrated with mobile communications.

The company's Blueprint for Sustainability

And as with the company's "Blueprint for Sustainability," which set nearly, mid- and long-term goals for significant reductions in the company's global environmental footprint, the "Blueprint for Mobility" defines the start of Ford's thinking on what transportation will look like in 2025 and beyond, and the technologies, business models and partnerships needed to get there, including;

"Cars are becoming mobile communications platforms and as such, they are a great untapped possibility for the telecommunications industry. Right now, there are a billion computing devices in the form of individual vehicles out on our roads. They're largely unconnected from one another and the network," Ford said.

The 2012 Mobile World Congress

Bill Ford's keynote at the 2012 Mobile World Congress was the first ever to be delivered at the leading annual communications industry event by an automotive industry executive, and followed his address at the TED 2011 conference in Long Beach, Calif.

So, I don’t think Mr. Ford’s future will ever happen. To put it more exactly, stuff that we need will be brought to us by delivery trucks; and most of us will do our work from a home office. Cars will be used occasionally, and often for recreational purposes — as they were at the start. Where car travel makes economic sense, people will use cars for travel. For longer distance, they will some some faster means, with a rental car at the other end, if need be.

Moving people physically from their homes to their offices every day . . . just so they can sit in front of a computer and yap on the phone. . . is completely stupid and wasteful.

I find this sort of thing very depressing. I grew up crossing the country by car, awestruck by the vast open spaces, the Rockies, etc., and during I see the logic of networking cars, I prefer a country where the population isn’t so dense that anything like this is needed. A networked population of cars takes the adventure and romance out of driving.

@DC Bruce: there’s no substitute for to tell the truth being with people. I do work out of my house, and I have for probably 3/4 of my working life, and though I do a lot of talking on the phone, to interesting people, I find I often have to go to a coffee house just to see other people.