EMEA: Firsts with Ford

I had the opportunity this week to speak with Ford about its claimed first ever automotive original equipment manufacturer-led developer conference set to take place Sept. 8-11 in Las Vegas. This is an important move as getting into vehicles isn’t easy for application developers.
Today there are many different roads a developer might go down in order to do this. Do they work with the individual app stores or the handset vendors (Apple CarPlay or Google AndroidAuto), or do they work with the OEMs who are hosting their own stores (BMW or Toyota), or do they work with industry consortiums (Open Automotive Alliance or MirrorLink)? There are too many options for an app developer to go it alone. This is where Ford looks to comes in.
The Ford Developer Conference is a combination of education, competition and an opportunity to get ideas launched in the industry. The first day will consist of educational sessions followed by an all-night “hack-a-thon.” The developers will have access to data provided by the City of Los Angeles in order to work through the night on their apps. This data will consist of data sets related to crime, auto accidents, airport traffic and traffic flow. This data is provided via the Los Angeles data portal.
On the second and third days of the event the app developers will have the opportunity to test their ideas in the Connected City-Connected Car App Pursuit stand sponsored by Ford and Los Angeles. On the last day of the show, 50 developers will be invited to present in the stand in an attempt to win 10 spots to move to the next level of the competition. The 10 finalists will receive their own bench test unit and two months to work on completing their app for a next round of competition set to be held at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Nov. 19-21.
At the Los Angeles Auto Show, the final winner will be selected, with the team set to attend the 2015 International CES event to present their featured app alongside Ford.
You’re probably wondering how this benefits the greater industry and not just Ford? There are two important initiatives that come into play here. The first is Ford’s Sync AppLink platform, which bridges the connection between the apps on your smartphone and the car through voice-controlled commands designed to keep you safe while driving. Not all Ford vehicles support the platform and not all apps are supported, but it currently works with Apple’s iPhone, devices running Google’s Android operating system and BlackBerry’s app stores and devices. But this is really the same issue across most OEMs and their in-house solutions.
The more interesting part of the discussion is the Ford Smart Device Link program. The goal of this effort is to create an industrywide standard that will provide a single method for app connectivity, between any smartphone and any vehicle — regardless of the OEM. I applaud Ford for this effort, but with so many other players involved in this type of work — especially the app store providers — it will be interesting to see how it progresses. For example, how does MirrorLink come into this discussion or not?
Needless to say I’m looking forward to stopping by at the upcoming Super Mobility Week to see the creative ideas the developers are working on and hope to have some interesting topics to highlight for you while I’m there.
Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career the telecom, IT and security. Having experience at an operator, software and hardware vendors and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.