Ford now associated not only with the production machinery. Recently the company introduced within the Mobile World Congress 2 prototype smart bikes. MoDe: Me and the larger size MoDe: Pro work with a combination of pre-charged batteries and pedals. New items reach speeds up to 25 km / h. Application, which was also presented in Barcelona MoDe: Link, compatible with iPhone 6. After you enter a destination, bicycle planning your trip, taking into account. You can filter the proposed routes, depending on various conditions: paid parking, the amount of time you want to spend it on a trip by bicycle. Then the wheel will notify you of various alerts, and the app will automatically activate the turn signals.

Application, which was also presented in Barcelona MoDe: Link, compatible with iPhone 6. After you enter a destination, bicycle planning your trip, taking into account. You can filter the proposed routes, depending on various conditions: paid parking, the amount of time you want to spend it on a trip by bicycle. Then the wheel will notify you of various alerts, and the app will automatically activate the turn signals.

You can filter the proposed routes, depending on various conditions: paid parking, the amount of time you want to spend it on a trip by bicycle. Then the wheel will notify you of various alerts, and the app will automatically activate the turn signals.

Vehicles are added, allowing its owner to put the bike in the car or truck, or make it to the train. Ford is considering new items presented in an extensive mobility system that combines automobiles, motorcycles and other modes of transport in a single network.

Special iOS-app will indicate the driver a shorter route. Bicycles are equipped with built-in charging station in case the battery gets in the way. On average, the battery of both models will work 9 hours. The most impressive feature is that, if necessary, you can turn on automatic scrolling pedals, giving yourself the opportunity to relax.

The car manufacturer says that with the help of smart vehicles can “help people respond quickly to the situation on the roads.”

Source: Engadget

The post New smart bikes MoDe from Ford will go for you appeared first on Raqwe.

At a special event in Detroit, Ford presented to the public car modification Fusion Hybrid, designed to test a new system of automatic driving.

Homing version of Fusion Hybrid looks like a regular Fusion Hybrid 2014 issue, if not look at the roof. That’s where the system is installed Lidar and several 360-degree rotating camera. In Ford believe that with their help, the car can get the most detailed topographical and visual representation of the environment.

Tandem of four devices cylindrical shape under the force output maximum detailed image in real time, allowing the car to distinguish moving (frightened animals, pedestrians and moving cars) and nedvizhuschiesya (alleys, congresses and benches) objects.

Collected information and its processing algorithms developed by researchers at Michigan State University, will help the car regardless of the mode of transportation to eliminate the possibility of traffic accidents.

During the event, Ford’s vice president of product development at Raj Nair stressed that the experimental vehicle is not self-controlled car and will only be used to test new “modern driver assistance systems.” For example, self-parking systems or automatic bypass obstacles.

Of course, Ford plans to look not so ambitious as Google’s plans or Volvo , which plans to release its self-managed road cars robots. However, Ford is by nature is not as aggressive as Google and always occupied a middle ground between the desire to innovate at a speed of technological and characteristic for the automotive industry in Detroit conservatism.

Nevertheless, the issue of self-car company Ford is to be commended, as together with other automakers and the National Road Safety (NHTSA) is working on the implementation of the concept to include all vehicles in a single network. The idea is that all the cars do not just have to interact with the environment through cameras and data processing algorithms, but also to communicate with each other with a view to joint movement coordination. If cars can synchronize and communicate with each other, the need for a system Lidar, which can advance to see an obstacle in the form of moving towards the car disappear. Implementation of this concept will also be able to solve other problems. For example, to save fuel and avoid traffic jams.

The post Ford Fusion Hybrid showed the system Lidar, intended for development of autonomous driving appeared first on Raqwe.

Even during the CES 2013, Ford and General Motors (GM), together announced plans for the creation and development of technologies aimed at uniting the driver’s smartphone and in-car computer into a single system. Ford is almost immediately began to produce new applications for the Sync AppLink, and GM just opened for registration of developers dedicated website. Currently, GM said it to see the first fruits of his labor will be in some cars of 2014 release.

GM says the company is not just about providing access to streaming music and the easiest applications that can determine the location of the vehicle. It comes to providing information about the engine, the main indicators of the car, as well as the creation of an entire ecosystem of applications. To implement the planned GM will allow developers to harness the power of the subsidiary OnStar. In other words, developers will have full access to the internal know-how and technology company.

“At the moment, more than 22 thousands of developers eager to make every effort to improve the information and entertainment systems to make cars a key component of the concept of the Internet of Things” – said Nick Pudar (Nick Pudar), director of the new program, GM of ecosystem development in an interview with the developers share Gigaom .

Mr. Pudar also said that GM will soon put an end to fragmentation.

«Chevrolet continues to be the integration of different system MyLink, Cadillac – System Cue, and Buick – IntelliLink, but they will no longer be running different operating systems. This will greatly facilitate the work of developers. They no longer have to create three different applications. “

Applications that are currently working in cars Chevrolet and Cadillac, based on the capabilities of smartphones and in-car computer. The same approach is used in the Ford Sync. GM is planning to abandon the dual-platform approach.

“People change their smart phones every 1-2 years, which is not about the cars, new models are much less likely to buy. Thus, the hardware capabilities of the built-in car computer and smartphone significantly different. “

That’s why GM decided to take a risky approach and do-it-autonomous. Access to the app store will be available directly from the dashboard.

Initially, access to the network will be used by smart phones, but since 2015 the company will integrate LTE modem directly into cars. Developers, in turn, will be offered comfortable enough API, which will allow you to create applications using the power of the car’s computer or remotely.

It is worth noting that GM plans seem ambitious enough, but time will tell how well the developers and the GM team will be able to make a reality of all that at the moment so beautifully described in the paper.

The post General Motors cars will turn into smartphones on wheels appeared first on Raqwe.

The latest invention Zach Nelson (Zach Nelson), junior engineer of Ford, can make life easier for novice motorists and avtolyubitelnitsam that the choice of the coveted “steel horse” rule out models with manual transmission for a simple reason: they do not know how to use a manual transmission and give automatic preference.

To help newcomers to solve the problem, Mr. Nelson has created a kind of simulator for the development of principles of management manual transmission. For this he needed a body gear levers, which he printed on the 3D-printer, the components of the Xbox 360 (to provide tactile feedback), Arduino controller and LED display.

The device is compatible with the platform OpenXC and to submit to the user the appropriate signal (vibration), which indicates the need to change gear, harnesses the power of the automatic diagnosis. The display, in turn, displays information about the position of the transmission, which is necessary to pass (reduced or increased).

Through the mini-USB port or Bluetooth wireless technology device can be connected to the Tablet PC running Android.

Zach Nelson Test the unit on such cars as the Ford Mustang and Focus ST.

Resource Wired notes that in order to maximize performance and to save on gasoline this device can also be used by more experienced drivers.

The post Ford engineers developed a “smart” box of a gear change appeared first on Raqwe.

The hacker Charlie Miller, actively practicing breaking iPhone, iPad and computers Mac, decided to expand into cars. According to the expert, in the computer systems of cars Toyota Prius and Ford Escape he found a critical vulnerability, the use of which can lead to accidents on the roads with these cars. 100-page report, prepared by Miller, is the fruit of several months of research conducted by the U.S. government money.

Miller hacker with Chris Valasek find vulnerabilities in the computer systems before they can be detected by criminals. They claim to have found a way to make the Toyota Prius suddenly braked at speeds of over 120 km / h A hacker can remotely move the steering wheel of the car and make the car dramatically increase the speed. Products from other automakers are also not left the attention of hackers. For example, the Ford Escape experts have learned to turn off the brake when the car is moving too fast.

Hacking hackers carried out with their laptops being directly in the car. They will not share information with the public about how to implement remote hacking. Experts hope that their findings will help automotive companies to remove errors in the electronic security systems of passenger cars.

The representative of Toyota Motor Corp John Hanson said the company is studying the report and did not deny that the computer systems installed in cars Toyota, may be small errors. A spokesman for Ford said the company is concerned about the burglary and will take measures to prevent this in the future.

Experts promise to submit the applications needed to attack the computer systems of cars during the conference Def Con, which will be held in August in Las Vegas. At the end of last week, the researchers gave a preliminary interview with Forbes, which reported on the work done and how they have managed to take control of the car itself.

The post The hacker Charlie Miller hacked cars Ford and Toyota appeared first on Raqwe.