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You just sat in your Ford Figo and are set to reach your office for a meeting at 9.30 AM. All of a sudden, you encounter alot of traffic. You are going to be late. But wait, you need not inform anyone about this, because the new Late arrival notification application will do the needful by sending an email or text message to other attendees. All this without any input from the driver. How smart is that? Pretty smart. Ford has just started to ship OpenXC beta toolkits to developers, which will let them develop applications for mobile connectivity. The above one has been made by HCL and could soon be in your Ford vehicle.
Ford is demonstrating the OpenXC research platform and the potential of open-source application development for automobiles at the NASSCOM India Leadership Summit. The American automaker wants to bring together the automobile, mobile phones and the internet cloud in the creation of new experiences when behind the wheel. OpenXC is an open-source hardware and software platform developed by Ford Research and Innovation and New York City-based Bug Labs. This will help local developers take advantage of mobile connectivity. It is basically a smartphone software platform, giving developers the route to offer their innovative solutions for automobile mobility. With OpenXC developers will be able to create apps across entertainment to addressing congestion, healthcare and education.
Mohit Soni (special correspondent at MotorBeam) attended the press conference and brought in these points.
1) Ford will be working on other platforms, expect Android in future (if the public demands)
2) Android is easy to use and can be modified so its chosen platform
3) Ford has feedback portals for employees and customers for suggestions and ideas since a long time
4) Everything is cloud based and security issues (which are related to cloud are being worked upon)
5) Wipers will turn on if its raining 5 kms ahead because cloud has sent a message that it is raining ahead
6) This all is just a highly tuned GPS system which will be fitted into cars, which will provide every info on the move expect navigation.
