And the Winner Of The Ford Apps Competition Is – Caravan Track

When a group of Ford Motor Company, University of Michigan, and Intel representatives got together in October of 2009, they created American Journey 2.0 – a competition intended to help create new on-the-road tools. Journey 2.0 spawned "Cloud Computing within the Commute" a class and competition between students to create a new social-networking application for use in Ford research vehicles. The winner of this competition class was Caravan Track – an application that can be used in the Ford Fiesta research vehicle.

Caravan Track

An application called Caravan Track won the competition built around the Cloud Commuting within the Commute class. Caravan Track is a social network / internet / wifi application that helps members of a caravan keep track of one another. Caravan Track will keep track of the position and road hazards of all automobiles signed into a particular trip. If the caravan is set to pass restaurants, rest areas, or points of interest, the Caravan Track app will inform them. Messages are pre-programmed into the touch screen, making certain the driver keeps their eyes on the road.

The other five Ford App competition competitors

There were six teams within the class that created the Ford Apps for The American Journey 2.0. While Caravan Track won, the other applications nevertheless have the potential to be very useful. By using Facebook to match potential carpoolers together, GreenRide Challenge aims to cut back total trip miles. Self-reported road hazards give users of NostraMap the chance to stay away from the worst road hazards. Fuel Tracker gives real-time feedback on fuel economy and mileage for a specific route. Point-of-Interest is built to "learn" a driver's interests over time, and recommend companies and locations the driver might discover interesting. An application called “Listen. Speak. Rate. Share” is a voice-review app that gives verbal reviews of places along a driver’s route.

Ford Fiesta with Caravan Track

Along with other experimental and research projects, Caravan Track could be loaded onto a Ford Fiesta headed for Silicon Valley. On the way to the Maker Faire, this research Fiesta will try to report on the trip and use social networking to make the trip easier. It’s certain that students at the U of M could be watching this trip very closely.

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Edmunds Blog

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