Comments on: Ford 2012 Focus Is One Step Closer To Skateboard Chassis Manufacturing Platform and End of Combustion Engine

By: Are GM and Segway Planning A New Mobility as Service Category with the Urban Chariot?

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:51:53 +0000

[...] will see opportunities around new designs based on sleek skateboard electric vehicle chassis. And these innovators will see software as the most effective safety strategy. ’Connect [...]

By: Future of Auto Industry Telematics and Connected Cars Will Transform the Driver into Captain

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:26:19 +0000

[...] from an inescapable problem of managing factory capacity utilization, and global competition. [Ford Skateboard chassis post; GM manufacturing [...]

By: Bloom Box and the Very Disruptive Future of Distributed Energy [Video]

Bloom Box and the Very Disruptive Future of Distributed Energy [Video] — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:17:08 +0000

[...] http://www.garrygolden.net/2010/01/14/ford-2012-focus-is-one-step-closer-to-skateboard-chassis-manuf... [...]

By: Want to see the future of car design and manufacturing? Watch Trexas, Local Motors and Riversimple

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:51:51 +0000

[...] performance wheel-based electric motors that provide improved torque, efficiency and a lower cost modular manufacturing platform for vehicle [...]

By: GM’s Decision to Build Electric Motors Could Shift Conversation on Future of American Manufacturing

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:46:18 +0000

[...] performance wheel-based electric motors that provide improved torque, efficiency and a lower cost modular manufacturing platform for vehicle assembly (See Videos [...]

By: Garry Golden

Garry Golden — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:21:26 +0000

David
I’m not sure Ford or automakers are giving up on the market demands of getting you from Point A to Point B – safely and cheaply. In fact, I think they are trying to improve upon it.

First, by making it cheaper through a new scalable/modular electric propulsion platform that lowers the costs of car ownership.

Second, they are using software systems to make driving safer. The historical era of mobility has been software-free. There are no information flows coming into the vehicle that help the driver make the best decisions (both for safety and getting there faster!)

The coming era of the ‘connected car’ (in which vehicles retrofitted with their own mobile communication devices) will mean a new feedback loop of information delivered to the driver. Aggregating Vehicle to Vehicle communication systems will enable real-time travel information (velocity of cars following other cars; event incidents; objects on road, et al).

Ford, GM, Toyota (et al) realize that software is a major component to the driving experience of the near future. It will add a new layer of information to the driver that does not exist today. That makes for safer driving in the end. (Today, we base our decision on a very limited visual reference of the car ahead of us– without knowing what is really happening up ahead in real-time.

So I’m not sure automakers are abandoning their primary function of providing mobility solutions that are safe and affordable. They are upgrading it!
Thanks for the comment..!

By: David Wallace

David Wallace — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:26:51 +0000

I need a car to get me from point a to point b safely and cheaply. They may want to sell other services to me but where do I get the money to pay for all this.