DEARBORN -- Led by President and CEO Alan Mulally on Wednesday, the Ford team responsible for the latest in-car connectivity recreated the crowd-pleasing presentation they made at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Held at Dearborn’s Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, the hour-long presentation featured Mulally, Derrick Kuzak, group vice president, Product Development, and several electronics and connectivity engineers who showcased the MyFord Touch technology coming this year to Ford vehicles.
Mulally said the CES debut of MyFord had been the hit of the electronics show. “All these technology wizards were in awe … they were talking about Ford as the ultimate app,” he said. Kuzak said the popular Ford SYNC system and now MyFord Touch are part of the company’s strategy to make in-car entertainment, communication, navigation and climate controls smarter, simpler and safer.
“This is not technology for technology’s sake. It’s there because it has real value and will help our customers use our cars,” said Kuzak.
As they drive, he said, “customers want the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife and that’s what Ford is doing for the automobile.”
Though voice commands and fingertip controls, “we’re integrating the entire in-car experience, all the while letting our customers keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel,” he said.
Jim Buczkowski, director, Electronic and Electrical Systems Engineering, then explained how an advance like MyFord were developed.
The new system’s guiding principles include the functionality of a five-way fingertip control as on mobile phones and video games; the use of clean and smart LCD screens; color-coded functions; logically organized information and easy access to relevant information determined by each driver.
“It’s easy to update since it has room to expand and it’s simple to use so it’s safer to use,” he said. In fact, hands-on-the-wheel and eyes-on-the-road was a major theme of the presentation, as was the importance of our voice-led controls for our in-car systems.
Buczkowski said the MyFord system will be available in 80 percent of Ford’s vehicles within five years. Next, using live video and a mock-up instrument panel, Jason Johnson, user interface design engineer, demonstrated the system to the enthusiastic audience.
Doug VanDagens, director, Connected Services, then discussed how Ford is integrating technology that “built-in, brought-in and beamed-in” for its customers.
Since the Ford navigation systems can easily be upgraded, it is “better than embedded navigation systems or ones that require the purchase of expensive discs” to update.
Soon available will be a feature that allows MapQuest directions to be downloaded to the car where the system will read aloud and display them.
“Think how many drivers will be able to keep their eyes on the road rather than looking at a map or printed-out directions,” he said.
And Ford’s goal, he said, was to keep such features affordable for millions of customers. Julius Marchwicki, product manager, Information Technology, explained that through such partners as Pandora and Stitcher, MyFord users will be able to create personalized radio stations and news services.
Twitter users will also have access to their messages, he said. “This is the Ford strategy of letting you use your phone and your applications,” he said. At the meeting’s end, Mulally summed things up. “These innovations are a direct response to consumer demand,” he said, “and doing it in a way that is simpler, safer and smarter.”
“This is the delivery of what customers want and need.”