Ford Addressing Parents Concerns With MyKey

Ford Motor Company has announced a new feature to be offered in the 2010 model of the Ford Focus. MyKey will provide safety features aimed at keeping teen aged drivers safe and responsible behind the wheel of the family car. With the MyKey feature installed the vehicle will alert the driver at various speeds ranging from 72 kilometres an hour to 130 kilometres an hour, the upper maximum the driver would be allowed to drive. The system also alerts the driver when the vehicle is running low on fuel and can limit the volume of the stereo. Not surprisingly, parents surveyed loved the idea while teens hated it... but then again who's paying for the car, the insurance, the gas, etc...

Sympatico / MSN story

Ford Offers Hi-Tech Features To F-Series Trucks and E-Series Vans

Ford Motor Co. is offering up some innovative features to appeal to contractors and business owners. The company announced yesterday that it was rolling out four new features branded as Ford Work Solutions. “Our truck customers are smart - and they work hard,” said Mark Fields, Ford's president of The Americas. “Ford Work Solutions provides truck customers new technologies and tools to help them work even smarter and further boost their productivity.” The lineup includes:

• an in-dash computer system that provides full high-speed Internet access via the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network and navigation by Garmin;
• Tool Link, a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) asset tracking system enabling customers to maintain a detailed real-time inventory of the tools or equipment stored in the pickup box;
  
• Crew Chief, a fleet telematics and diagnostics system; and
• Cable Lock, a security system to discourage theft of tools too large to fit in the cab.

It's funny, I never saw Ford as a Geek's company but these features would make Tim Taylor drool! On second thought my '79 Pinto wagon was a little on the geeky side...

Electric utility and Ford team up for plug-in hybrid

Ford Motor Co. and Southern California Edison are teaming up in an attempt to bring plug-in hybrid vehicles to market more quickly. The plug-in hybrid is primarily run on electricity but switches to internal combustion engine when the batteries run low. They are known as plug-in hybrids because the batteries that drive the electric motor is recharged by plugging into a standard wall jack. Mass production of the vehicles, which many manufacturers are prototyping, has been held back by cost and battery technology. The purpose of this partnership, in which the electric utility will get one vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by 2009, is to test the vehicles durability and impact on the power grid. The Globe and Mail has the story here.