US:FORD: Radical tech to debut - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 01-07-2007, 08:17

FORD: Radical tech to debut

Microsoft deal puts all-purpose software in 2008 Focus first

BY SARAH A. WEBSTER

DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

In late October, Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford Motor Co., arrived at the Microsoft Corp. headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to review the final details of a top-secret project with Bill Gates, the founder of the Goliath software company.

Gates, who did for the computer what Henry Ford did for the automobile, was personally committed to embedding his new Microsoft Auto operating system in a Ford, America's best-selling brand.

Ford and Microsoft will announce the ambitious venture today in the redesigned 2008 Ford Focus as the North American International Auto Show opens with media previews. It will be one of the show's signature moments as Detroit's automakers flash their newest models and concepts to the world at a pivotal time for the battered domestic auto industry.

The joint project by Ford and Microsoft will substantially integrate two defining technologies of the 20th Century -- the car and computer. For drivers, that means one wireless, voice-operated system for phoning, playing digital music, receiving text messages and executing a variety of other everyday computer functions is less than a year away.

The cutting-edge system, dubbed Sync, could help the Focus reconnect with young buyers and stand out in a crowded small-car market that had been passing Ford by.

Longer term, as Ford brings the Sync option to a dozen 2008 models, the system also could set Ford up for a generation of success by delivering an important message to consumers: American innovation really is Ford's focus.

"It's American technology in an American car in the United States," Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific Inc., said of the new deal. "Somebody was going to do this. It was just a matter of when."

In a market where first-to-market is often counted in dollars, history will show that Ford, with Microsoft's help, beat its competitors.

As he arrived for this meeting with Microsoft, Fields knew the stakes were high. He showed up in typical Ford attire, a suit, tie and the company's blue oval logo pin. All buttoned up, Fields initially felt out of place in a setting known for its casual workplace, where even the billionaire Gates usually wears khakis and an open-collar shirt.

But in a sign of just how important this meeting was to both companies, even Gates wore a tie.

As they met, the two men agreed they would co-brand Sync with the Ford and Microsoft names. Ford will have an exclusive contract with Microsoft through the end of 2008, before the software giant can start selling the system to other automakers.

For the struggling Ford, which the Free Press expects to close out 2006 with as much as $10 billion in losses amid a massive downsizing effort that will slash 44,000 jobs and close 16 plants, the launch of the Sync project is a proud new piece of progress.

"I think you'll see us getting a lot more aggressive on those types of technologies," Fields told the Free Press.

Later today, Fields is set to fly to Las Vegas to help Gates present Sync at the Consumer Electronics Show.

But no matter how important this project might be to Ford or Microsoft, Fields has been instructed not to wear a tie.

A boost for small car

For now, the Ford-Microsoft project is pinned on the Focus, which essentially will become the mascot for Sync.

The Focus, which is expected to hit showrooms this fall, is an interesting entry-level vehicle choice for the Sync project.

Consumers and critics hailed the inaugural 2000 Ford Focus as a fun-to-drive, cutting-edge car that could take on Japanese automakers.

But the car -- now Ford's only small car for sale in the United States -- has aged fast in a hot small-car market populated by young models.

Vehicles like the Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Chevrolet Aveo and Dodge Caliber have redefined what it means to be a small car. With those cars changing the game, the Focus doesn't cut the same impressive swath in traffic it once did, and the functional interior now seems to offer all the charm of a motel coffeemaker.

In the new Focus set to be shown today, designers and engineers aimed to keep the fun-to-drive personality that made the U.S.-based Focus hot in the first place, but they gave it a more modern exterior and interior and sprinkled the whole package with techno-attitude.

Ford also will revive a 2-door Focus as a companion to the 4-door sedan. Unlike the Focus hatchback of the past, however, the new model will be a coupe with a trunk.

What's more, the new vehicle is about 60 pounds lighter than before and is therefore expected to offer the same or better real-world fuel economy than the already efficient Focus.

This 2008 Focus will be a crucial vehicle not just for Ford but also for the suffering Michigan economy, which has lost jobs by the tens of thousands.

The new Focus will be built at the sprawling Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant on Michigan Avenue, where UAW Local 900 workers are abuzz about the multimillion-dollar investment in their 55-year-old plant to manufacture the car.

The details of that project, as well as several other Ford investment efforts being supported by the State of Michigan, are slated to be jointly announced Tuesday by Ford executives and Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Going after young drivers

Without a subcompact car on the ground in the United States -- most major automakers sell both a subcompact and compact car -- Ford is hoping the new Focus will help the automaker catch a piece of a small-car boom whose market is expected to grow 5% a year through 2008, and to win over the 70 million-strong group of Americans born between 1977 and 2002.

To demographers, that group is known as Generation Y, Echo Boomers or Millennials. But to automakers, they are the Future Drivers of America, and the 2008 Focus pays homage to their nomadic, technical lifestyle.

Although the new exterior is marked by a horizontal chrome grille, a higher belt line and new wheels, the cabin with its new look and technology is really what this Focus is about.

The contemporary, computer-inspired interior includes a silver metallic dashboard -- think laptop PC -- illuminated by crisp and calm ice-blue lighting -- think Windows XP desktop screen -- and a message-center display that peeks up off the dashboard for convenient reading.

Special chimes inside the vehicle, for reminders about seat belts and unclosed doors, are similar to other digital sounds in modern life.

Ford also will offer Focus buyers an ambient lighting package that will allow them to select one of seven colors to light up the inside of cup holders and foot wells. Drivers will be able to cycle through the colors on a dash-mounted switch, not unlike the ring tones in a cell phone.

The effect of the lighting is dramatic, creating different moods, all of which make the compact cabin feel larger.

"We want customers to be grabbed by the fact that it's different," Beth Donovan, Ford's group product marketing and planning manager for small cars, told the Free Press.

Young car buyers, she said, want to be connected to their vehicles.

"They shouldn't have to give up anything about their lifestyle today just because they're getting in their car," she said.

Stacy94PGT · 01-07-2007, 08:21

Microsoft-Ford digital music system puts demise of car CD players in sight

Tom Krisher / Associated Press

About Sync

What it is: The Sync system by Ford Motor Co. and Microsoft Corp. incorporates personal music players and Bluetooth cell phones into a car's interior electronics. A driver can pick songs, artists and genres by voice or a steering wheel control, and an electronic voice can read incoming text messages.
Why it matters: The race to upgrade car electronics could spell the end of the compact disc player, but give more options to people who have their music libraries on iPods or other digital devices.
Source: Associated Press

DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. and Microsoft Corp.'s new in-dash system that links cars with cell phones and personal music players is a major step toward the demise of the car compact disc player.

The "Sync" system being unveiled Sunday at the North American International Auto Show connects popular iPods and all other digital music players to in-dash software through a USB port, allowing a driver to pick songs, artists or genres through voice activation or with controls on the steering wheel.

It also links Bluetooth telephone devices to the car's electronics, allowing the car system to pick up Internet broadcasts. An electronic voice even will read inbound text messages through the sound system, complete with a vocabulary of slang abbreviations.

Sync ratchets up the car electronics war as the struggling Ford tries to compete with General Motors Corp.'s OnStar system, DaimlerChrysler AG's MyGIG in-dash hard drive storage system and similar devices offered by other manufacturers.

It gives Ford leadership, at least for now, in what is becoming an increasingly competitive race in cabin electronics, said Kevin Reale, an automotive analyst at AMR Research Inc. who has been briefed on the Sync system by Microsoft.

"It's going to give them some competitive differentiation in being able to provide capabilities of personal electronics in the vehicle," said Reale, who predicted that other manufacturers will catch up quickly with other electronics suppliers.

Just last week, Hughes Telematics and DaimlerChrysler teamed up to develop a new system.

The whole race places the venerable CD in danger of extinction. Sync can even take music off a simple USB thumb drive, ending the need to fumble with and store multiple CDs.

In fact, Ford already is discussing whether it needs to offer CD players in future models, said Gary Jablonski, the company's manager of infotainment systems.

"Certainly we know there are customers who have migrated their entire personal music collection to a digital realm, in which case, Sync and the USB connection will probably be the only thing in the vehicle that they use," Jablonski said. "Is there a day when the CD player disappears from the vehicle? It seems likely."

Ford plans to put the system in 12 of its vehicles starting with 2008 models. Company officials say it's likely to be an option that costs less than $1,000.

Ford said it has an exclusive contract with Microsoft for one year, then the system can be sold to other automakers.

The system is designed so it is linked to all car electronics and to be flexible enough to handle devices that haven't been invented yet. Sync someday could include laptop computer links, vehicle diagnostics and even voice reading of Web sites, Jablonski said.

"Phones last with a customer about 18 months. Our cars last a lot longer than 18 months. We want to make sure that the car stays relevant, compatible with what the customer is using," he said.

The system is a creature of some Ford engineers talking about how to solve the personal music device/cell phone dilemma. The company, like many manufacturers, was caught off guard by the iPod phenomenon. Some of its current models don't even have a jack to plug such devices into the sound system.

But Ford vows not to be caught off guard again.

"You'll see a significant shift in the kinds of technologies that Ford's offering and the speed at which they're coming to market," Jablonski said.