- Autonomous vehicle technology is
another step closer to production at Ford – moving from a research
effort to an advanced engineering project
- Ford announces it is working with
Silicon Valley-based 3D-printing firm Carbon3D to quickly produce
high-quality automotive-grade parts
- Ford kicks off wearable technology
development with MyFord® Mobile app extension – coming soon to
smartwatches including Android Wear – providing customers the
ability to check vehicle driving range, battery charge and more for
their plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle quickly from their
wrists
Autonomous vehicle technology is another step closer to
production at Ford, moving from a research effort to an advanced
engineering program, the company announced today.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150623006144/en/
Ford Motor Company has kicked off
wearable technology development with a MyFord(R) Mobile app
extension - coming soon to smartwatches including Android Wear -
providing customers the ability to check vehicle driving range,
battery charge and more for their plug-in hybrid or electric
vehicle quickly from their wrists. (Photo: Business Wire)
Ford has appointed a director of autonomous vehicle development
– 29-year Ford veteran Randy Visintainer – and created a global
team to work on the advanced program.
Ford Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto is working on the
global Ford team to deliver the Ford Smart Mobility plan, which
aims to take the company to the next level in connectivity,
mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big
data.
“During the next five years, we will move to migrate
driver-assist technologies across our product lineup to help make
our roads safer and continue to increase automated driving
capability,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president, Global
Product Development. “At the same time, we are working to make sure
those features and the whole way you shop for, buy and own a Ford
vehicle provides an outstanding customer experience.”
With the transition to advanced engineering, autonomous driving
technology enters the second of three phases in the process of
bringing a feature to market. As an advanced engineering program,
the team now is working to make the required sensing and computing
technology feasible for production and continuing testing and
refinement of algorithms.
Ford also announced today that Pre-Collision Assist with
Pedestrian Detection technology, already available on Ford Mondeo
in Europe, will be available in the United States next year on a
Ford-brand vehicle. This continues Ford’s plan to roll out the
feature on most Ford products globally by 2019.
Driver-assist features are part of the building blocks for
increasingly capable semi-autonomous technology, as Ford enhances
the sensors, algorithms and actuators in vehicles to create new
fully automated driving technology.
Today, Ford offers the most available driver-assistance features
in four U.S. vehicle segments, according to an analysis comparing
mainstream vehicles by SBD North America.
Ford F-150 has the most available driver-assist technology in
the large light-duty pickup segment, while Edge and Explorer lead
the midsize SUV segment, Fusion tops the midsize car segment and
Taurus leads among large cars. Each vehicle has eight available
driver-assist features, the independent analysis shows.
The Ford brand offers more nameplates in the United States with
active park assist, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure
warning with lane-keeping aid, and blind spot monitoring than any
other mainstream manufacturer, according to SBD research.
Early access to Carbon3D CLIP technology helps accelerate
innovation, product design
Ford is collaborating with start-ups and other key players in
Silicon Valley to make mobility solutions accessible to millions of
people worldwide.
Since December 2014, the company has been working with Redwood
City-based Carbon3D – which developed Continuous Liquid Interface
Production technology (CLIP) – a 3D printing technology that grows
parts from UV curable resins at speeds as much as 25 to 100 times
faster than conventional 3D printing processes. The resulting
parts boast mechanical properties that are applicable for a range
of needs for Ford vehicles including high-quality automotive-grade
parts.
“Our ability to innovate depends on how quickly we can move from
idea to production,” Nair said. “This technology enables us to
quickly create automotive-grade parts for product design prototypes
– and perhaps even production parts – faster than ever before, so
we can deliver new vehicles to customers even sooner.”
Carbon3D technology uses engineering resins able to damp
vibrations, support loads or withstand high temperatures.
Using the technology, Ford produced elastomer grommets for the
Ford Focus Electric and damping bumper parts for the Transit
Connect.
Ford boosting connectivity, too
Ford also has been working to extend connectivity innovations to
wearable technology.
The company developed a MyFord® Mobile app extension coming soon
for smartwatches – including Android Wear.
The MyFord Mobile application, already available for
smartphones, will provide customers the ability to check the
driving range and battery charge for their plug-in hybrid or
electric vehicle quickly from their wrists before they leave on a
trip, and to even find the location where they last parked.
Ford also recently announced its all-new SYNC® 3 communications
and entertainment system will debut in North America on the 2016
Ford Escape, Fiesta, F-150, Mustang and Transit. SYNC 3 features
faster performance, conversational voice recognition, intuitive
smartphone-like touch screen and easier-to-understand graphical
interface.
Ford was first to bring voice control to smartphone apps with
AppLink™, and the experience is further improved with the touch
screen interface experience of SYNC 3. AppLink allows customers to
connect their smartphone and control their compatible apps using
voice commands or buttons on the touch screen display. The
first apps to launch with the new SYNC 3 AppLink experience are
Spotify, Pandora, Glympse, Accuweather and iHeartAuto.
This week marks the first time SYNC 3-equipped vehicles are on
the road for test drives.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in
Dearborn, Michigan, manufactures or distributes automobiles across
six continents. With about 194,000 employees and 66 plants
worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and
Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor
Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford and its
products worldwide, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.
For news releases, related materials and
high-resolution photos and video, visit www.media.ford.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150623006144/en/
Ford Motor CompanySaid Deep313.594.0942sdeep@ford.comorAlan
Hall313.337.9618ahall32@ford.comorJessica
Enoch313.594.7933jenoch@ford.com
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024