Engineers have long been trying to adapt the automobile to drivers’ preferences. In partnership with Google, Ford is hoping to create cars that could receive data in real time and predict driver behavior and probable destinations. Such information could then be applied to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions.
The tool is called Google Prediction API, and in optimized form, it can help enable a Ford of the future to ask questions of the car’s drivers based on routes regularly traveled, time of day and current location. Picture a voice inquiring, “Good morning, are you going to work?” If you reply in the affirmative, it may then say, “Your vehicle performance has been optimized for your trip.”
The system as currently imagined would interact best with a plug-in hybrid like the prototype Ford Escape that Ryan McGee, a Ford technical expert, said his team was developing. Early research is being shown off at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco this week.
Read the entire article at the: NY Times Wheels Blog
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