The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ford

  • Ford introduces SYNC AppLink

    Ford introduces SYNC AppLink

    With most smartphone owners saying they use navigation apps while driving, Ford Motor Company is introducing new SYNC AppLink capability that will project navigation apps directly from a smartphone to the vehicle touch screen. Sygic Car Navigation is first to take advantage of the new capability.

    According to a 2015 study by Pew Research Centre, two-thirds of Americans are now smartphone users. Of more than 1,600 who participated in the study, 67 percent said they use their smartphones at least occasionally for turn-by-turn navigation when driving, while 31 percent frequently use navigation apps via their smartphones.

    When a smartphone is paired to the vehicle via USB cable, control of the Sygic app is removed from the device. The app is automatically projected to the vehicle touch screen making the navigation app more convenient to manage. The technology aims to reduce a driver’s urge to pick up and look at a mobile device.

    Ford Connected Vehicle and Services Executive Director, Don Butler, said: “Ford understands how customers are using their smartphones, so it’s important we offer them more choice in how they connect and control their capabilities in the car. Our new SYNC AppLink mobile navigation capability will help keep drivers’ eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel while using the apps that they love.”

    Sygic is the first mobile navigation app to take advantage of Ford AppLink capability to move mobile navigation from the phone screen to the in-vehicle touch screen. Available in more than 200 countries and about 40 languages, Sygic technology is used by 150 million smartphone owners across the globe. The Sygic Car Navigation app is optimised to work seamlessly with Ford SYNC 3 – giving drivers more choice in how they navigate.

    Sygic Chief Executive Officer Michal Štencl, said: “Sygic is committed to exploring the boundaries of navigation, a philosophy that directly contributes to our enduring reputation as the leader in navigation for connected cars. We look forward to unveiling premium new cutting-edge features and further developments as part of our global relationship with Ford.”

    The new SYNC AppLink mobile navigation capability will launch on 2018 Ford vehicles.

  • Ford, Honda recall 1.5 million vehicles

    Ford, Honda recall 1.5 million vehicles

    Two automakers are adding more than one million vehicles to the growing Takata air bag inflator recall.
    Honda Motor Corporation is recalling 772,000 additional Honda and Acura vehicles in the United States (US) for defective front passenger seat air bag inflators made by Japanese supplier Takata Corporation. Ford is recalling more than 816,000 vehicles in North America.
    Honda’s vehicles, announced in a recall last week, are part of an expanded recall of 1.29 million vehicles, including some recalled earlier. No recalls related to the U.S. one are being announced in other regions yet, Tokyo-based Honda said.
    Takata is at the centre of a massive recall of inflators that can explode in a crash, injuring people by sending metal shrapnel into the passenger compartments.
    Among the models recalled are the 2005-2006 Acura MDX, 2005-2012 Acura RL, 2008-2012 Honda Accord, 2006-2011 Honda Civic, 2007-2012 Honda Fit and 2010-2012 Honda Insight.
    The recall also covers the 2009-2012 Acura TSX, 2011-2012 Acura TSX Wagon, 2010-2012 Acura ZDX, 2010-2012 Honda Crosstour, 2005-2011 Honda CR-V, 2005-2011 Honda Element, 2012 Honda FCX Clarity, 2005-2012 Honda Pilot and 2006-2012 Honda Ridgeline.
    Ford’s latest call back covers the 2005-2009 and 2012 Mustang and the 2006-2009 and 2012 Ford Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln MKZ. Also included are the 2007-2009 Ford Ranger and Edge, the 2007-2009 Lincoln MKX, the 2006-2009 Mercury Milan and the 2005 and 2006 Ford GT.
    Ford said it’s not aware of any injuries involving this batch of vehicles.
    Takata uses the chemical ammonium nitrate to cause a small explosion designed to inflate the air bags in a crash. As many as 16 people have been killed worldwide and about 180 have been injured.
    More than 100 million vehicles involving 17 automakers have been recalled worldwide, including 69 million in the U.S. alone, underscoring the scale of the crisis. Because of the scope of the recalls, the replacements are going to take years.

  • ‘Ford’ll pay suppliers after cancelling Mexico plant’

    ‘Ford’ll pay suppliers after cancelling Mexico plant’

    Ford Motor Corporation is working on a plan to compensate parts makers that were preparing to supply the plant the company cancelled last week, and will return the land to the government of Mexico, according to an executive.
    Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, told reporters that the company will eventually disclose the construction cost of the aborted project.
    “It’s not an easy decision to cancel a plant that you’ve already started,” Hinrichs said after a speech at Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. “We don’t take it lightly. It was a big decision to build the plant in the first place and it was a big decision to cancel it,” he said.
    Ford told Mexico’s government of its intent to scrap the $1.6 billion small-car factory on the morning of January 3, just before making the decision public. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company plans to build Focus compacts at its existing plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. Executives made the decision when they saw the latest sales projections for the car were lower than anticipated, Hinrichs said. “We stayed true to our commitment to the Focus programme to make it in Mexico.”
    Ford has been attempting to make peace with American-President elect Trump after the president-elect criticised the company during rallies and debates that preceded the November election. The second-largest U.S. automaker said when it cancelled the factory last week that it will add 700 jobs to a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Trump tweeted his praise and turned his ire toward General Motors Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation for building cars in south of the border.
    “Ford just announced that they stopped plans for a $1 billion plant in Mexico and they’re going to be moving into Michigan and expanding, very substantially, an existing plant,” Trump said last Wednesday during his first press conference since the election.
    “I appreciate that from Ford. I hope that General Motors will be following, and I think they will be,” he said.
    GM spokesman Tony Cervone declined to discuss the company’s manufacturing investment plans. “We look forward to engaging the new administration in conversation,” he said.
    Ford has said it’s saving $500 million by moving Focus production to its existing Mexican plant from the now-abandoned site in San Luis Potosi.

  • Ford unveils new autonomous car

    Ford unveils new autonomous car

    Ford has announced a new and advanced autonomous development vehicle that will be used for testing autonomous functions.

    Ford didn’t give the car new name; instead, it’s sticking with the Ford Fusion Hybrid moniker that has been used since it introduced the first model three years ago.

    Ford’s Chief Program Engineer Chris Brewer said: “This new car uses the current Ford autonomous vehicle platform, but ups the processing power with new computer hardware. Electrical controls are closer to production-ready, and adjustments to the sensor technology, including placement, allow the car to better see what’s around it. New LiDAR sensors have a sleeker design and more targeted field of vision, which enables the car to now use just two sensors rather than four, while still getting just as much data.”

    Brewer, in his blog post, touched on some compelling and almost philosophical questions surrounding the development of new autonomous vehicles. He asked, for example, how one is supposed to replicate “everything a human driver does behind the wheel in a vehicle that drives itself?”

    Brewer ponders how the car will recognise if it has the right of way or not, or what happens if there’s an accident along the route. These are questions that other firms, such as Uber, Volvo and Google, are also trying to answer. Brewer said Ford hopes to learn more by using a virtual driver system that’s dependable and able to make decisions that are otherwise left up to a human driver to make.

    Brewer also explained why Ford decided to go with another hybrid vehicle instead of a standard gas-powered car. Turns out there isn’t enough electric inside of a gas-car for all of the components required in an autonomous vehicle.

    He said Ford “had to tap into Fusion Hybrid’s high-voltage battery pack by adding a second, independent power converter to help create two sources of power to maintain robustness.”

  • Ford partners MIT to measure pedestrian traffic

    Ford partners MIT to measure pedestrian traffic

    Ford Motor Company and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are collaborating on a new research project that measures how pedestrians move in urban areas to improve certain public transportation services, such as ride-hailing and point-to-point shuttles services.

    The project will introduce a fleet of on-demand electric vehicle shuttles that operate on both city roads and campus walkways on the university’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus. The vehicles use LiDAR sensors and cameras to measure pedestrian flow, which ultimately helps predict demand for the shuttles. This, in turn, helps researchers and drivers route shuttles toward areas with the highest demand to better accommodate riders.

    “The onboard sensors and cameras gather pedestrian data to estimate the flow of foot traffic. This helps us develop efficient algorithms that bring together relevant data.It improves mobility-on-demand services, and aids ongoing pedestrian detection and mapping efforts for autonomous vehicle research,” said Ken Washington, Vice President of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford.

    The MIT research is being conducted by the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department’s Aerospace Controls Lab (ACL).

    ACL researches topics related to autonomous systems and control design for aircraft, spacecraft, and ground vehicles. Theoretical and experimental research are pursued in such areas as estimation and navigation, planning and learning under uncertainty, and vehicle autonomy.

    “Through the mobility-on-demand system being developed for MIT’s campus, ACL can investigate new planning and prediction algorithms in a complex, but controlled, environment, while simultaneously providing a test-bed framework for researchers and a service to the MIT community,” said ACL director Professor Jonathan How.

    Ford and MIT researchers plan to introduce the service to a group of students and faculty beginning this September. This group will use a mobile application to hail one of three electric urban vehicles to their location and request to be dropped off at another destination on campus.

    The electric vehicles are small enough to be able to navigate the campus’s sidewalks, while still leaving plenty of room for traditional pedestrian traffic. Each is outfitted with weatherproof enclosures that shield out inclement weather – a feature particularly useful for New England’s punishing winters.

    After requesting the shuttles via a smartphone app, MIT students and faculty won’t be waiting long for their ride to arrive.

    During the past five months, Ford and MIT have used LiDAR sensors and cameras mounted to the vehicles to document pedestrian flow between different points on campus. LiDAR is the most efficient way to detect and localise objects from the environment surrounding the shuttles. The technology is much more accurate than GPS, emitting short pulses of laser light to precisely pinpoint the vehicles’ location on a map and detect the movement of nearby pedestrians and objects. 3

     

  • Ford Middle East & Africa gets new president

    Ford Middle East & Africa gets new president

    Ford Motor Company has announced leadership changes in the Middle East and Africa as it continues to deliver the company’s One Ford plan for profitable growth.

    Jacques Brent, 46, currently Vice President Marketing, Asia Pacific, is appointed President, Middle East and Africa, effective from July 1.

    He will be based in Dubai. He replaces Jim Benintende, who will be taking over the role of director, US Sales Support and be reporting to Mark LaNeve, Vice President U.S. Marketing Sales and Service at Ford’s World Headquarters in Dearborn, from August 1.

    Brent described the appointment as a great opportunity in Ford’s newest region and “I look forward to continuing the growth and momentum we have established in these diverse markets. Jim and the team have done great job establishing the region and it is an honour for me to be able to lead this region as we embark on the next exciting phase of our development.

    “I am also very excited to once again be working with South Africa, and to get to know the employees and dealers in the other regions.

    “We welcome one of our favourite sons back to the region,” said Jeff Nemeth, CEO and President Sub Saharan African Region.

    “Jacqueshas distinguished himself in his assignments in North America and Asia Pacific and understands the workings of South Africa and Africa. He has key relationships with our team and dealer body, which will greatly benefit the company going into the future,” Nemeth added.

  • GM China sales rose, Ford’s fell in April

    Despite worries that China’s economy is growing at a slower pace and last year’s volatility in China’s stock markets, demand remains strong, especially in the so-called second-tier cities with populations of less than 5 million.

    Automakers are reporting strong sales of SUVs. General Motors’ posted a 7.5 per cent sales increase in April over a year earlier for its China joint ventures, while Ford’s sales fell 11 per cent last month in the world’s largest auto market.

    GM’s largest brand in China, rose 56 per cent from April 2015 to 98,992, led by the Excelle GT sedan and Envision SUV, which will be introduced in the U.S. this summer.

    Cadillac, which is still relatively new in China, posted a 13 per cent sales increase to 7,007, as it launched the new CT6 fullsize sedan in late January.

    Chevrolet sales in China fell 29 per cent to 35,431. Sales of the Baojun brand rose 56 per cent to 37,915, while Wuling sales slipped 14 per cent to 98,580, as demand softened for small commercial vans.

    Ford sold a total of 82,324 vehicles through its Changan Ford and Jiangling Motors joint ventures, along with vehicles imported from other markets, compared with 92,406 in April 2015.

    Ford’s SUVs continues to sell well in China, including the Ford Ecosport, Kuga, Edge, Explorer and Everest. Ford introduced the new Kuga and the Edge V6 at the recent Beijing Auto Expo.

    Despite the decline in April sales, sales for the first four months of 2016 of Ford’s joint ventures and imports in China are 6.7 per cent higher than a year ago.

  • Coscharis technicians win Ford Int’l Award

    Coscharis Motors has been hailed by Ford Motor Company for being committed to the training of its staff and acquisition of skills to face increasing demand for excellent after-sales service delivery in the automobile industry.

    The company was awarded certificates and plaques of excellence after its technicians satisfactorily completed last year’s online training set by Ford Motor Company for its dealers in Sub-Sahara Africa.

    Coscharis Group Managing Director, Mr Josiah Samuel, while receiving the award, thanked Ford Motor Company for the recognition and assured that the company will continue in the vanguard for the advancement of technical training and service delivery in the Nigerian automobile industry.

    “Ford Motor Company has created this platform to help our technical team acquire skills and knowledge that will bring them up to speed with the rest of this fast changing automobile world. These plaques and certificates are indications that we have made good use of the platform,” he said.

    Coscharis Motors Training Manager, Mr Sunday Tanimowo said: “At Coscharis, we are committed to training and re-training of our staff and technicians to be abreast with the latest technology in the fast moving automobile industry. That is why we ensure that all relevant staff and technicians are registered and follow through to see that they participate in the respective training programmes of our principals and consequently earn their relevant certification.”

    General Manager Marketing and Corporate Services Mr Abiona Babarinde said: “This is good news for our esteemed loyal customers by going further with Ford, our technicians are now refreshed and reloaded to better handle your precious automobile machines and deliver greater value for your service needs at all times.”

  • Ford plans four new SUV models

    Ford Motors has promised to come out with four completely new models in the next four years.

    The automaker already has the best selling SUV in the Explorer, as well as the second best selling crossover in the Escape. It also has two less successful models, the Expedition, a full-size SUV, and the Edge crossover.

    It will fill out its SUV line-ups by moving into additional segments with the new offerings, rather than replacing existing models.

    Sales of SUVs or crossovers were among the fastest growing segment in the U.S. market last year, up 16 per cent, according to sales tracker Autodata.

    Ford said it expects that growth to continue, with SUV share of the market rising from 35 per cent to more than 40 per cent.

    Ford gave no details about which segments the new models will compete in, but it said it expects to take aim at younger millennial car buyers, who have been slower than previous generations to buy new cars.

    Mark LaNeve, Ford Motor Company Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Service said the expected growth in SUV is not dependent upon gas prices staying so cheap, even though he admitted that it will helped growth in the segment in recent years. Even if gas prices go up, refuelling costs for owners of modern SUVs will be much less than they were during the last SUV boom at the start of the last decade, he said.

    Ford did not identify the segments it plans to now compete in, but the company does not have a compact SUV, like the Jeep Wrangler, or a subcompact Crossover, like the Honda HR-V. It also doesn’t have a true crossover with three rows of seats, and its luxury Lincoln brand has only three SUV/crossover offerings, the Navigator, the MKC and MKT.

    The new models will be global offerings that can be sold in other markets where there is also growing demand for crossovers and SUVs like South America and China.

  • Ford sets new record with 1.1 million sales

    Ford sets new record with 1.1 million sales

    Ford has reported record sales of about 1.1 million vehicles in China last year.

    The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker said last Friday that its 2015 sales in the country were up  by three percent from the previous year as demand for small sport-utility vehicles there continues to grow.

    It also set a new monthly sales record in December, selling 124,768 vehicles. That’s up 27 percent from the prior-year period.

    Ford also tapped into China’s booming market for luxury cars with 11,630 Lincoln vehicles sold during the brand’s first full year in the country, where its entire SUV line-up is offered.

    Lincoln added eight more dealerships than expected for a total of 33 in the 2015.

    The company is aiming for 60 dealerships in 50 cities by year-end.

    Jiangling Motors Corporation, Ford’s commercial vehicle investment in China, reported a six per cent decline in annual sales and a 12 per cent drop in December sales.

    The company sold 253,359 vehicles in 2015, down six  per cent compared to 2014. December sales totalled 26,391 vehicles, down 12 per cent compared to December 2014 .