'Communication is vital' to future of transportation

'Communication is vital' to future of transportation

Communication between vehicles will become a vital way from preventing "global gridlock" on roads in the future, Ford's executive chairman Bill Ford has said.

Speaking at the 2012 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this week, he highlighted the importance of developing new technologies to cope with the rising number of cars on the roads.

In the coming decades, he noted that the number of cars on roads around the world will rise from one billion today to up to four billion by mid-century.

"The co-operation needed between the automotive and telecommunications industries will be greater than ever as we prepare for and manage the future," he told delegates.

"We will need to develop new technologies, as well as new ways of looking at the world."

Mr Ford pictured a future where cars are intelligent enough to communicate with each other and the infrastructure around them.

The carmaker is developing in-car mobile communications and driver interfaces such as those that alert drivers to traffic jams and accidents. It used the event to launch AppLink, which delivers voice control of smartphone apps from the drivers seat.

Posted by Louise Clark