It seems car tech is all the rage. Nokia today announced that Ford’s research organization will use the Nokia Location Platform to advance innovation for smart and connected vehicles, as demonstrated by the Ford EVOS concept car.
Ford selected the Nokia Location Platform to leverage Nokia’s high-quality global location content, including the industry leading NAVTEQ Map, as well as scaleable cloud services and APIs. This complete solution offers a fast, easy and cost-effective path to create innovative and differentiated location products.
The Ford EVOS concept car showcases a future in which cloud services go beyond Internet access and traffic-enabled routing. For example, Ford’s concept car actually “learns” driver behavior to control, improve upon and personalize vehicle performance. Another area of Ford’s research is designed to optimize hybrid powertrain efficiency: the Nokia Location Platform could automatically regulate a car’s powertrain as it travels through established or driver-specified “Green Zones”.
“We are committed to providing compelling customized services to the automotive sector and customers like Ford,” said Christof Hellmis, Vice President Map Platform in Nokia’s Location & Commerce unit. “We have consistently focused on innovation around location and navigation in the car. This commitment enabled us to provide a global platform service which could truly enhance the customer and user experience. It’s exciting to see the Nokia Location Platform as an integral part of Ford’s mission to revolutionize the connected car.”
Ford has of course long integrated Microsoft’s Sync technology, which Microsoft credits with increasing Ford’s sales by 35% and will likely be a target of their new Connected Card Platform.
It seems, as seen in the video above, soon everything may come together after all for creating a seamless experience extending even into the car, powered behind the scenes by Microsoft and Nokia.
