Daily Archives: October 26, 2015


The LG Chem battery plant in Holland, Michigan will probably be producing 1 GWh …

The LG Chem battery plant in Holland, Michigan will probably be producing 1 GWh of automotive batteries before Tesla gets there

The First American Gigafactory Probably Won’t Be from Tesla
Over the past couple of years, Tesla Motors has received a tremendous amount of media attention for the construction of its massive Gigafactory lithium ion (Li-ion) battery production facility in R…


SYNC 3 is now rolling out in new Ford vehicles starting with the 2016 Escape and Focus and it banishes all the stuff people hated about MyFord Touch

I spent a week with a +Ford Motor Company Escape and while I still don't like touchscreens in cars, SYNC 3 is way better than just about any other OEM interface out there.

Review: MyFord Touch is Dead, Long Live SYNC 3!
The week of January 7, 2007 was a hugely important preview of the future of cars and how we would interact them. In the span of three days, there were three major product announcements in three cit…


Review: MyFord Touch is Dead, Long Live SYNC 3!

2016 Ford Escape SE - 27 of 40The week of January 7, 2007 was a hugely important preview of the future of cars and how we would interact them. In the span of three days, there were three major product announcements in three cities that all seemed distinct at the time but the convergence is now becoming clearer every day. The week kicked off with General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz revealing the original Chevrolet Volt concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Later that same day, then future Ford CEO Mark Fields joined Microsoft CEO Bill Gates on stage at CES in Las Vegas to announce the SYNC connectivity system. Finally, two days later Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed the world the iPhone at Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Each of those three products has evolved significantly in the last eight years and with each passing day we get closer to the fusion of them all, potentially in an Apple car. While that latter product is still likely years away from being announced, touchscreen smartphones are now ubiquitous with more than two billion in use around the world. They are so prevalent that we now expect to be able to use them anywhere and everywhere including behind the wheel. While plug-in vehicles currently represent only a tiny fraction of the world’s vehicle parc, they too will likely one day dominate and with the addition of autonomous capability our vehicles may well become nothing more than a place to consume content while being moved around.

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