While most auto manufacturers in the industry are concentrating on the ubiquitous electric and hybrid cars, Ford engineers are looking at a different perspective. These engineers are hard at work inside their workshop developing three add-ons that we may one day see inside our own vehicle.
The first unusual invention is an in-car water dispenser which Ford is calling "On-the-Go H2O." Doug Martin, the engineer behind the concept, thought of the idea when he came upon a billboard that was producing clean water out of thin air.
The whole thing is pretty simple. The water supply comes from the condensation that is a natural byproduct of the car's air conditioning. The water collected is then pumped into a tube, passes through a filter, and out the dispenser.
With other auto engineers looking into adding an in-car fridge to their units, this innovation would greatly complement that concept.
The second invention, called "Phone as Car," is an app inspired when Engineer Oleg Gusikhin found himself inside a taxi in China and couldn't communicate with the driver. The idea behind the app is for it to record your car preference - climate, radio station, and all that jazz - giving passengers the ability to adjust the interior setting without having to repeat themselves.
The app also works great with an autonomous vehicle where the waiting passenger could adjust their preferred settings before the car arrive.
The app will work with any vehicle with compatible software. Furthermore, the app has a text-to-speech feature that's able to receive a text from a passenger and translate to the language of the driver via Ford SYNC. The driver could then answer through the SYNC, the app processes the reply and send the translated version to the passenger.
The third innovation is Carr-E - pronounced as carry - which is a circular, wheeled hoverboard that can help people carry cargo in and out their car. It also comes in handy if you're a few miles away from your destination - say your office - but is stuck in traffic. Simply find a parking space, take the Carr-E out the vehicle, and ride it to work.
The device can travel for 14 miles at a speed of 11 mph, is equipped with sensors to avoid obstacles, and can be controlled by a remote or set its functions to follow you.
But all of these are just ideas at the moment and it's unlikely that we're going to see them on a Ford anytime soon. However, the technology behind them already exists. The next question is when is it viable for application?
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