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By Mel Duvall
Ford Motor Co. is looking to get back into the consumer's favor by forming a new team that will drive in-vehicle technologies, such as voice-activated systems for cellular phone service, GPS, and entertainment.
In a speech Wednesday to the Center for Automotive Research in Traverse City, Mich., Mark Fields, Ford's President of the Americas, said consumers may no longer be looking for gas-guzzling SUVs, but they do want fun-to-drive vehicles.
"We at Ford see this year's consumer shift to smaller vehicles as an opportunity and one that Ford is uniquely positioned to answer using the strength of our European small car lineup and our fast-moving global product plan," Fields said. "We plan to answer the call with dynamic, fun-to-drive small cars -- and we intend to make them profitably."
To spur innovation, Ford said it is forming a new 40-person team, called its customer connectivity group. It has appointed Doug VanDagens, 50, to head the group. VanDagens has been leading Ford's electronic product development and business operations, which has brought such products as SYNC and Travel Link to market.
SYNC is an in-vehicle system that allows users to play music or access their cellular phone using voice commands. The technology, which was developed by Microsoft, allows a user to issue a command such as "Play Nickelback" and the system recognizes the command via a built-in microphone. The Travel Link application delivers information via an on-board computer such as gas prices at nearby stations, traffic, weather, sport scores, and movie listings. Travel Link works through the Sirius satellite system.
Fields says the company needs to build technology that will appeal to the cell phone and Internet generation – the so-called Millennials. This population of 14- to 29-year-olds will represent about 28% of the driving population by 2010.
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