May/June 2005

Against a worldwide trend for car manufacturers to back-pedal on telematics developments, Ford has revealed an advanced telematics and navigation system it has been working on. It is said to be able to avoid a perennial problem faced by any navigation system - the situation that arises when the system diverts large amounts of traffic away from a hold-up, only to create another hold-up in the process.

The new system can avoid this, says Ford, because it provides drivers with individually tailored routes. It will base its recommendations on driver-specific information held in a central database. It will also hold information about the local environment - for instance, public traffic management strategies, school zones, construction projects and outdoor events.

A trial system has been installed in a Ford Galaxy car, and is said to have been tested successfully in several cities around Germany. Not only does it provide route guidance; it also enables the vehicle to receive real-time alerts (warnings of traffic problems and so on). Future dynamic routing will also offer other information relevant to the driver, says Ford, including local weather conditions.

It is not clear yet how soon such a system can be made widely available.