Friday, May 13, 2011

Ford and Google merging!

Ford and Google merging!

2012 Ford Focus BEV
Ford and Google team up to predict where drivers are going.


Ford and Google is merging together to make a new technology for the Ford future automotives. This well make more drivers drive more efficient. Making the way we drive better by 100%.

Ford going to improve its new 2012 Ford Focus BEV (or Battery Electric vehicles). Which it is coming out later this year. Ford is going to team up with the all popular Google Inc.  Ford will be using the Google’s Prediction API to help you with your common routes, in order to improve your performance.

Jóhannes Kristinsson, the systems architect of Ford's Vehicle Controls Architecture and Algorithm Design team said the new project differs from Ford's ongoing collaborations with university research teams to study traffic patterns.

The Predictive API will be exclusively focused on the driver, logging and analyzing their driving history.  In that regard, it is oblivious to traffic.  By studying a user's driving patterns, the system tries to "predict where the driver is going and then optimize the upcoming trip with respect to electric driving zones."

Data is only going to be collection for now, and transferred to dedicated server hardware as the history logging and route analysis is quite intensive, in terms of storage and processing power.  Data sent to the cloud would be made anonymous to protect users' privacy.

At a later time, information from multiple users in an area could possibly be compiled to form better route-specific programs, allowing a user to get semi-optimized performance for routes they haven't personally driven before.

Describes Mr. Kristinsson, "The focus of this research is how we can make the vehicle perform better for the driver’s personal driving habits. In a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, there are both a traditional engine, and an electrical motor connected to a large battery which can be charged from the grid. The vehicle needs, at all times, to determine which of these to use at any time in order to meet the drivers demands and deliver great drivability."

"If we can predict where the vehicle is going, and confirm this with the driver we can save electrical energy for upcoming occasions, or "electrical zones" in this case, in order to give the driver a great driving experience for all portions of the route."

For more info visit: http://www.dailytech.com


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