FORD’S HIGH TECH AND ECO APPROACH PAVES INDUSTRY WAY

Check out my test drive on Ford’s 2013 Special Edition Police Interceptor on the Ford testing track:

 http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/video/jul+1++tech+talk/video.html?v=2252146176&p=1&s=dd#video

When is an auto event not about cars? You might think it
strange, but last week’s Go Further With Ford Trend Conference was about
Eco-Psychology, Urbanization, Streamline and Simplify your life in a car while keeping connected and using
technology to design more comfortable and functional cars.

Oddly enough the word horsepower and torque was only mention
in the background when we ended the three day event test driving Ford’s new
cars including the 2013 Mustang GT 5-litre V8 muscle car which left most of its
rubber on the test circuit in less than two hours.

The evening arrival sit-down dinner was hosted by Bill Ford,
executive chairman of Ford Motor Company. Ford, the great grandson of the man,
Henry Ford, responsible for the first mass-produced automobile has single handily
transformed the company to an eco-conscious operation bent on lowering its CO2
carbon footprint and running the factories on markedly sees water consumption.
Through Ford’s efforts sustainability walks the walk with 85 per cent of
today’s Ford cars being recyclable.

Ford amusingly related a warning he got from Ford senior
managers when he joined the board in 1988 not to associate with known environmentalists
and radical groups.

Oddly enough at this week’s trend conference , a diverse
group of panelists would have been absent in the Ford of the 70’s. Container
home design Architect Adam Kalkin, New York fashion designer Christian Siriano,
urbanist Carol Colleta,  Zipcar’s
Gretchen Effgen and Eco-Psychology environmentalist Cher Fischer were
thoughtful on how transportation technology needs to change.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Like selling fewer cars in favour of car pools in urban
cities but providing for transportation in the far corners of third world
countries wheels can keep life necessities to the disadvantaged.

Bill Ford even wondered with all the collective information
of everything that happens in traffic, why is it that a car waiting on a red
light on an absolutely dead-quiet intersection can’t simply get a green light
to move on sooner. His personal nightmare is a massive world gridlock already
happeing in heavily populated parts of the world.

Some interesting car technologies coming soon this fall I
saw, include auto self-perpendicular 
parking in parking lots and shopping centers. Your car figures out the
first available stall and parks it for you. A really cool “texting feature” for
the Ford hands-free SYNCH platform ripe for third party apps, SYNC AppLink for
example is a no-charge Ford feature that will let you use your voice to control
smartphone apps. This fall free apps for BlackBerrys, iPhones and Androids will
let you “speak” a text message to a smartphone from your Ford car and hear the
spoken reply back in seconds. Ford smartly wants to keep their SYNCH technology
device agnostic so users benefit from a wider selection of interesting apps.

Stiil the company is in the business of making cars
competitively and their upcoming Fusion 
is an attractively designed car which will come in three version: All
battery, engine-battery combo and all gas.

For more information 
follow Twitter @Ford and use #GoFurther, Facebook.com/Ford