A car that dials emergency services itself in case of a crash and warns its driver of traffic snarls ahead: Ford Motor Co's chief believes connected autos will pave the road to the future. As car ownership numbers boom in the great emerging economies, the mobile communications technology on show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week may help unclog jammed infrastructure.
"If we do nothing, we face the prospect of 'global gridlock', a never-ending traffic jam that wastes time, energy and resources and even compromises the flow of commerce and healthcare," warned Bill Ford in a speech to the congress.
China took the dubious honour of hosting the world's worst traffic snarl in 2010, with an 11-day gridlock. And auto numbers are rising, expected to go from one billion today to four billion by 2050, Ford said.
Unusually, cars have invaded the aisles of the world's annual mobile phone show: Ford is launching its sub-compact people mover, the B-Max, AT&T showed off Nissan and BMW models and Blackberry hosted a Porsche on its stand.
All four cars have one thing in common: they are connected. "There is an internal SIM card inside," said a BMW spokesman, allowing the car to know the traffic status thanks to data transmitted on the mobile network or to call emergency services in case of accident. Ford offers the same prowess and more: a car that promises to call emergency services and to speak the right language depending on the country.
Mobile communications will help keep cars on the move, said Bill Ford. "The telecommunications industry is critical in the creation of an interconnected transportation system where cars are intelligent and can talk to one another as well as the infrastructure around them," Ford said.
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