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Bill Ford: Cars the "great untapped opportunity" for mobile

2/28/2012

LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2012: Ford Motor Company's executive chairman Bill Ford has called on the mobile industry to help develop smarter transport systems for the future.

In a special keynote address at Congress tonight, Ford - the great-grandson of legendary founder Henry Ford - outlined the need to develop intelligent vehicles and transport systems and the role that the mobile industry could play in creating inter-connected transportation networks to relieve pressure on the world's road networks.

"The telecommunications industry is critical in the creation of an inter-connected transportation system where cars are intelligent and can talk to one another as well as the infrastructure around them," Ford said. He added that no single company or industry will be able to tackle the issue alone. "I believe our two industries are critical partners in achieving a future where transportation continues to represent freedom, power and economic growth and we'll get there if we work more closely together than ever before."

Ford's ?Blueprint for Mobility' initiative envisages vehicles communicating with each other, transport infrastructure and mobile devices in the future. "Cars are a great untapped opportunity for the telecommunications community," Ford said.

Ford predicts vehicles will be communicating with infrastructure and cloud systems in half a decade, making journeys more efficient by providing alternative transportation options if congestion is unavoidable.

Looking further into the future, pedestrian, bicycle, private car and commercial and public transportation traffic will be "woven together into a single mobile network to save time, conserve resources, lower emissions and improve safety," according to Ford.

Ford became the first ever car company to launch a vehicle at Congress, unveiling the B-MAX on Monday, which included its SYNC mobile connectivity technology.

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