Correction: In earlier post I was wrongly crediting Ford for the clever Onstar / Chevy Volt Mobile Innovations and of course they are from GM not Ford.
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Ford CEO Allan Mulally will again keynote this year’s CES. Last year Mulally’s keynote was exceptional both in content and innovation as well as how passionately Mulally seemed to feel about Ford’s prospects in the very troubled times of the auto industry. With a background in Aerospace Engineering, Mulally seemed the right man at the right time to face the difficult challenges ahead for Ford.
After the talk I had a chance to ask him if Ford would need auto industry bailout money and he said “no”. Although Ford has enjoyed some loans from the US Energy Department I do not believe they’ve requested bailout funding, and it really appears that under Mulally’s leadership Ford will emerge successfully and eventually profitably from the near collapse of the US Auto industry.
Photo by Technology Report – OK to use with attribution.
John and I are prowling the floors at CES 2009 this afternoon and we’ve managed to bump into some interesting technologies as well as more than a few clever marketing pitches. The Hoover Reports economic analyst folks have a great looking Robot roaming the floors, but it turned out it is controlled by a human operator standing nearby and appears to have no to very limited autonomy. One of last year’s incredible technologies was the Darpa Autonomous Vehicle which drives itself, dodging pedestrians and traffic based on the software with no human control – not sure if Darpa is here this year or not.
A vehicle technology that really impressed us today was the Simcraft full motion simulator. John tested it out and we’ll have pictures soon, but Simcraft’s simulator offers 3 degrees of freedom thanks to a strong steel frame system combined with electric servo motors. Three monitors on the front provide a wrap around visual of the track and John was very impressed with the realism. At $44,000 this is not the best Anniversary gift for your wife but for the very high end consumer market and (I think far more importantly) military and training markets this represents a lot of potential cost savings over real vehicles. We spoke with Simcraft’s CTO Sean MacDonald who indicated they are now working with Dept of Defense on training projects for combat vehicles. More and pictures later….
Also impressive was a new slim format notebook coming up from ASUS with a raised keyboard that allows low/no fan thanks to increased air flow between the keys and the CPU. The unit was the most stylish of all the netbooks I’ve seen so far. We spoke with Daniel Alenquer of the Asus design team who should be very proud of bringing low cost form to the high function of the many new ASUS models. Engadget has a good report on what most will probably agree is the most stylish notebook design of the show: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/video-asus-airo-laptop-with-amazing-sliding-keyboard/
Ford CEO Allan Mulally really impressed the crowd and reporters after his CES Keynote about Ford in vehicle connectivity and navigation innovations including systems to merge cellular connectivity with vehicle systems, a customizable dashboard, and a humanized communication interace called “Eva” which will allow the driver to request features and “talk” to the car.
Mulally was even more impressive after his talk when he answered questions from the tech crowd about Ford’s plans. His enthusiasm or Ford and for technology in cars came through loud and clear.
I had a chance to ask him if he thought all this innovation would require money from the government as part of the auto industry bailout. Ford is the only one of the three key US manufacturers that has not asked for money, and Mulally indicated they did not have plans to do so based on his assessments of the quality of Ford vehicles and how their new models are gaining acceptance even in Europe, especially Germany where Ford remains a popular brand name.
Although I wouldn’t bet on Ford not asking for a piece of the bailout pie eventually it is great to see a charismatic and technologically sophisticated fellow in charge of one of American’s most complex and valuable industries. If Mullaly can’t pull Ford’s feet out of the fire, nobody can.
ASUS PC T101 H
I think I was more impressed with the ASUS than Liliputing, but I found the idea of converting the netbook to a tablet with a quick flip, and then being able to attach this unit on a dashboard for a big GIS unit most excellent. The rep told me the GIS application will not be Google’s and I’m not clear how they’ll run that but one possibility would be the trick Blaupunkt was showcasing, also as CES Unveiled, where the user connects a device to their phone via bluetooth and then uses the mobile wireless plan to power these in-car broadband applications. Maybe I fell off the pumpkin truck but I had not heard of doing broadband in this fashion and I think that has some excellent implications for in-car mobile.
later…. at an HP presentation waiting to play with HPs similar offering which is already out, the HP tx2 tablet. They’ve done a lot of studies in India and concluded that touch can “unlock access” to people who would not have access in tradtional form. This is a very interesting aspect of emerging countries technology though I’m somewhat skeptical that building for illiterate folks is superior to … teaching them to read first.
CES, CES09, Car Tech, bluetooth, companies, computers, conferences, wireless
honda-insight 2010
UPDATE: Honda is now saying that the vehicle will now be available early, starting 4/22/2009, at a MSRP of only $18500. If so, it will underprice all other hybrids by $4000 or more. Given the super cool styling of the vehicle (same as honda’s hydrogen car) this is quite a deal.
More updates on pricing and availability from the sleuths at Technology-Report as it becomes available. 1/2/2009.
By John R. Ghysels, Special to Technology-Report.com
Hybrid vehicles are the ultimate gadgets. They represent efficiency and technology coming together in a tiny carbon footprint.
Cost has kept many away from these wondrous machines. Most reviewers have for years insisted that the additional dollars needed for a hybrid never could make for a reasonable ROI. Even when gas prices soared, dealer mark-ups ruined any hope recovering the “hybrid premium” in cost. Fortunately, just as the model cycle for the ever-popular Toyota Prius draws to a close, Honda is introducing a powerful new player into the hybrid market under the old name-plate of the previously phased out Insight.
With an MSRP of just $19,000, the new four door Insight will be among the low price leaders, under pricing even Honda’s Civic Hybrid as well as the Prius. And, unlike many other larger car and SUV players, the Honda should deliver mileage and performance representative of a truly efficient Hybrid vehicle.
Us hybrid owners are particular. In fact, we look with a bit of disdain on the dated tech of old, gas propulsion cars. At least now we won’t have to pay as high a premium for the privilege of piloting a more efficient drive train.
The new Honda Insight is expected for model year 2010.
John Ghysels, 12/20/2008
Technology News – Reuters
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