How Will Open Source Help Ford Sell More Cars?

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Permalink Reply by Bjorn Carlson on October 30, 2009 at 9:03am

Wow, this is kind of a crazy but really cool concept! I think what we will see is a whole new generation of apps - apps that are not necessarily socially geared but apps that are more practical and functional like the iPhone apps.

The first idea that comes to my mind is a performance monitoring app that allows you to make adjustments to the various components of the car on the fly, similar to the devices you have to buy and install currently except you wouldn't need to buy the device and you wouldn't need to have any knowledge about how to install it. If you're a guy with a performance vehicle you could use this app to publish stats about your car to your other gear head friends via Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking platforms. Imagine getting a Tweet that says, "@bjorncarlson just posted a 12.63 second quarter mile!"

I think the possibilities are endless, as we have seen with the iPhone apps, developers will continue to be creative and develop apps that the rest of us will go, "Wow, that is amazing!"

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on October 30, 2009 at 9:52am

Bjorn,
Given Indiana's history as an auto industry supplier, and the groundswell of application developers popping up around here, do you suppose we'll see the coolest car apps developed by local companies?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Stuck on October 30, 2009 at 12:03pm

NO! Big fat no on top of that. GM and Chrysler are going back for bailout money through GMAC (3rd time) and Ford just tried negogiating with its unions but they voted down the proposal. FORD is in serious financial distress and were quoted as saying "their competitiveness as a car maker is in trouble with the union not wanting to cut labor costs".

Consumer spending is dropping and the 4th quarter will be even more as Americans save more and pay down debt. The clash for clunkers sped up what people would have bought years down the road. Car sales have dropped dramatically.

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