Do You Multitask While Driving?

A new study commissioned by Ford has found that an alarming amount of drivers multi-task, exercising bad habits while driving.

Fortunately Ford is also attempting to lower this number, and safely accommodate drivers who do like to multi-task during their commute offering a wide range of hands-free options as well as new safety features that will warn drivers to certain risks on the road.

Freep.com writes:


Dearborn – Drivers admit to bad driving habits that can make them less attentive and prone to accidents but they welcome technology that makes them more aware of their surroundings, a new survey released today shows.

A study by Penn Schoen Berland and commissioned by Ford surveyed 2,506 drivers in the U.S. in May and found 99% think they are good drivers, even though 76% eat or drink behind the wheel, 55% speed, 53% talk on a handheld phone, 37% drive when too tired and 25% will pick up their phone and search for contacts.

“People are saying they are safe drivers but they are engaging in other things while behind the wheel,” said Billy Mann, managing director of Penn Schoen Berland.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20120828/BUSINESS0102/120828080/Ford-Penn-Schoen-Berland-study-safety-technology-2013-Fusion?odyssey=nav%7Chead

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Ford Planning To Produce 800,000 Turbo Charged Vehicles.

Ford is making a huge leap in the hybrid market, but that’s not the only place they’re leaving traces of Ford greatness. Next year Ford is set to produce over 800,000 turbo charged cars that use Ecoboost technology such as the Fusion.

The Detroit News writes:


Ford has said for years — ever since the launch of its EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6 in 2009 — that it planned by 2013 to make 90 percent of its North American lineup available with EcoBoost, which is a marriage of turbocharging, direct-injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing.

The plan is taking full effect this year, particularly with high-volume vehicles like Fusion and Escape. The technology has already been a success on the F-150; Ford has sold more than 200,000 F-150s with EcoBoost engines in 18 months.

Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120823/AUTO0102/208230334/1148/AUTO01/Ford-tops-U-S-rivals-turbocharged-engines

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How to Use Jumper Cables

Need a jump? Seems like a basic thing to do for your car, but you'd be surprised how many people can't use jumper cables properly.

● Find a car to serve as the boosting car.

● Park the two cars -- the dead car and the boosting car -- close to one another, making sure that they're not touching each other.

● Make sure both cars' engines are turned off, and both cars are in park.

● Clamp the red jumper cable (i.e. the positive cable) to the dead car's positive battery terminal, which is marked with a "+." Make sure that the clamp is firmly connected to the battery.

● Clamp the other end of the red jumper cable to the booster car's positive battery terminal, also marked with a "+." Make sure that the clamp is firmly connected to the battery.

● Clamp the black jumper cable (i.e. the negative cable) to the booster car's negative battery terminal, which is marked with a " - ". Make sure that the clamp is firmly connected to the battery.

● Clamp the other end of the black jumper cable to a bare, metal surface on the engine of the dead car. This can be a bolt or a screw. This provides grounding for the jump start [source: Brauer].

● Ensure that the jumper cables are not touching any engine parts.

● Start the booster car's engine and let it idle for a few minutes.

● Start the dead car's engine and let it idle for a few minutes.

● Disconnect the black jumper cable from the once-stalled engine. Then disconnect the black jumper cable from the booster car.

● Remove the red jumper cable from the booster car. Then remove the red jumper cable from the once-stalled car.

Original Article: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/how-to-use-jumper-cables.htm

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Ford Sync Gets New Money Saving App

Ford as well as BMW have released a couple of new apps, but it's the one from Ford that really takes the cake.

It's a new app called Roximity and it's designed to quickly and efficiently save you more money while on the go.

The new app lets you select from several categories of interests such as Bars or Groceries, and then it shows you the current specials at the shown places, as well as how to get there!

Motortrend did a report on this new technology and featured the following article:


Ford’s application is called Roximity, and is the creation of Danny Newman, Austin Gayer, and Joe Mease. The three submitted Roximity in last year’s 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in Ford’s SYNC App Developer Challenge and won first place. Roximity might follow the same path as special daily-deal services like LivingSocial and Groupon, but allows registered users to fine-tune which deals they see. As it runs on an Apple iOS device, it uses the smartphone’s GPS to tell the user where the closest relevant deals are. Because they won the SYNC app challenge, Newman, Gayer, and Mease were given access to Ford’s SYNC programming interfaces; the result is full Roximity integration with the SYNC system, making your car a rolling bargain hunter.

The system only runs on SYNC AppLink, which is limited to non-MyFord Touch devices, and requires an iOS device like an iPhone to be connected to SYNC. Once everything is set, the driver can use SYNC’s voice-activation feature to search for particular deals. The app launched this morning and is available in the Apple App Store.

Read more: http://wot.motortrend.com/bmw-ford-unveil-in-dash-apps-including-daily-deal-and-stitcher-smart-radio-244567.html#ixzz23Ae5QcVp

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