Ford's 2015 CES keynote

Ford's new CEO Mark Fields will take to the stage and tell us what's next for the Blue Oval.

3rd & 7 37yd

James Martin 1/6/2015 5:29:28 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:29:29 PM
Fields: "We received some absolutely brilliant submissions, and we're going to highlight 11 of them today."
Antuan Goodwin 1/6/2015 5:30:09 PM
Automakers are really embracing the app development contests. I see dozens of hackathon or app challenges yearly.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:30:14 PM
Ken Washington is on the stage, who runs Ford's R&D center in Silicon Valley.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:30:37 PM
The first app we're going to look at is Parking Lot 2.0.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:31:01 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:31:07 PM
It's an app that lets drivers make "painless mobility payments" and get notifications when their meter is almost expired.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:31:17 PM
Scratch that, the app is called "Crowd Park."
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:31:24 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:31:49 PM
Lot owners can raise prices based on demand, which sounds a little Uber-like.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:31:57 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:32:04 PM
People can actually take pictures of people who are illegally parked, and get a little reward themselves.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:32:06 PM
Interesting...
Antuan Goodwin 1/6/2015 5:32:24 PM
@TimStevens: VERY Uber-like.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:32:29 PM
Next up, moving to Argentina, and alleviating congestion. The concept is called the Urban Shuttle.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:32:52 PM
It's a conceptual series of mini-shuttles that can connect together, and then split off.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:32:57 PM
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:33:12 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:33:20 PM
Now looking at another parking app for London.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:33:37 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:33:51 PM
I have to be honest, it's a little difficult to keep up with all these apps and demos and "solutions." The future of transportation is looking like an even more fragmented place than it is today.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:34:00 PM
Next app is "Smart Taxi" in Lisbon.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:34:13 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:34:34 PM
It gives taxi drivers a heat map to show where the biggest fares are to be found -- which means good luck getting a ride uptown in the morning.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:35:03 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:35:12 PM
Now we're talking about monsoon season in Mumbai, and there's an app to basically tell you how bad the water-logging is and where you should avoid.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:36:03 PM
Another app, now, focusing on the "golden hour" -- which refers to the 60 minute window to ideally get patients to the hospital.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:36:06 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:36:41 PM
For the Golden Hour challenge, an application called FLARE, will help emergency services find a way to crashes quickly.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:37:56 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:38:03 PM
Next app, a biometric verification service for developing areas. It's called SimPrints.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:38:29 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:38:43 PM
The idea is to create a simple cheap solution for identifying people in developing nations to better enable health tracking.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:39:32 PM
Next up, solution for helping drivers who are driving off-road or in challenging terrains.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:39:43 PM
Antuan Goodwin 1/6/2015 5:39:57 PM
The heath and fingerprint scanning apps being featured now are starting to get pretty far from Ford's "mobility" focus, but maybe I'm not thinking big enough.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:40:07 PM
Okay, finally, that section of the presentation is over.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:40:11 PM
Mark Fields is back.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:40:14 PM
Oh, no, it's not over.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:40:25 PM
Next mobility challenge is to help commuters in Shanghai.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:40:53 PM
It's an app called Parkopedia, "the Wikipedia for parking."
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:41:03 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:41:22 PM
It basically aggregates information about parking around the world, with information about availability, distance, and cost.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:41:33 PM
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:42:00 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:42:19 PM
Next up, Chongquing, China. Connecting multiple modes of public transportation.
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:42:21 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:42:50 PM
The winning app can help you get from A to B using everything from trains to rickshaws.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:42:59 PM
"25 experiments, 25 opportunities to start creating new transportation solutions."
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:43:03 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:43:24 PM
"As we drive innovation, in every part of our business, we're determined to learn."
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:43:30 PM
"We're determined to challenge custom and change tradition."
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:43:56 PM
Ford is challenging its engineers to "create a better world."
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:44:23 PM
"Will we marvel at the innovation in these products themselves, or will we think about innovation with a higher purpose? ... At Ford, we're doing both."
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:44:27 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:44:54 PM
Fields wants us to come by the booth and see their autonomous tech and to learn more about the experiments that they dragged us through today.
Antuan Goodwin 1/6/2015 5:45:12 PM
"We've asked [our challenge participants] to not just make better products. We ask them to innovate... to make people's lives better."
James Martin 1/6/2015 5:45:24 PM
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:45:26 PM
And that's it! We're done with the opening keynote and the CES floor is opening.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:45:31 PM
We're off to go find the latest and greatest.
Tim Stevens 1/6/2015 5:45:52 PM
Thanks for joining us, and make sure you keep an eye on
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