Ford OpenXC technology system for vehicles
The arrival of handheld cellular devices has opened many new dangers for preoccupied drivers. According to the National Safety Council, 28 percent of all street accidents in 2010 included drivers using mobile phones or other handheld devices. A hot topic in the news, many are quick to call for stiffer regulations. But Ford Motors has been working on OpenXC, a high-tech app platform for use when driving. With automotive loans, you can afford a new car.
Vehicles with Android applications
OpenXC - an open-source connectivity research system developed by Ford and New York City-based Bug Labs - employs a little hardware component installed in the vehicle that reads and translates data from the on board network. That data then is available for use in Android applications. With it, developers will be able to devise apps allowing drivers to send emails, get directions and who-knows-what other tasks without taking his or her eyes off the road.
T.J. Giuli, an engineer with Ford’s Infotronics Research and Advanced Engineering team, said:
“With OpenXC, we want to enable anybody to write for the platform. It’s based on Android, but it’s easier to use. It’s open-source software from the beginning. OpenXC is in private beta right now. When we do release publicly, the entire source base will be open.”
Giving developers a chance to develop
Soon, OpenXC will be sent to programmers. This is supposed to allow them to create the apps that would go well with the system.
According to Giuli, this technology was originally a different system tested already:
“OpenXC is a platform that’s grown out of several ideas we’ve been looking at for research for a while. We did a previous platform with similar ideas: You could write code that ran on your car, and we partnered with Microsoft and the University of Michigan, and teams designed applications and had a competition. We took a lot of the things we learned from that platform and applied them to OpenXC.”
Other countries
Nations such as India have economies where the market is unknown, which is where Ford thinks this system will do better.
Ford Research and innovation senior technical director Venkatesh Prasad explained:
“India is such a unique and diverse marketplace that -- as an automaker -- it’s almost impossible for us to keep pace with consumer trends. With OpenXC, Ford is opening up access to the car. By enabling local and independent developers to easily and quickly create apps using data provided by the car in combination with mobile connectivity and the power of the cloud, the possibilities are almost limitless.”
Already sending kits
A ton of programmers will be working with the system to find fun and amazing ways to use it. There are infinite possibilities of what might take place. MIT, Stanford, the University of Michigan and private developers have already been sent the OpenXC toolkits to help them get started.
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Giuli says that the system might be out later this year, although it is really unknown when it will be available.
Sources
San Diego Times
OpenXC
AOL Auto
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