CTIA 2011: Ford Gets A Network Boost From AT&T [Ford Focus Electric Models Will Get Networked With AT&T, Open Up A Variety Of Options]

Tweet

For those of you who thought that CTIA was going to be a huge romp of cell phones and precious little else, well, I’ve got just what you’ve been looking for: car news. Really! Turns out the folks at Ford are getting in league with the crew out at AT&T to put some networking options in Ford’s first all-electric passenger car, the Ford Focus Electric, and what this opens up will be an exciting development indeed.

Now, what AT&T’s networking will do–besides jack up the price of a Ford Focus Electric even farther–is destroy the locksmithing market as we know it. Okay, maybe it won’t go that far, but what it will do is give vehicle owners access to a variety of vehicle settings while away from the car. Owners will get access to MyFord Mobile, a smartphone app–also a website–which in turn allows them to control those settings. There’s no specific mention of just which settings are involved, but my guess at a minimum would be door locks and headlight controls.

So if you’re in a building or something, and you get that nagging feeling you get every so often that you’ve left your lights on, rather than running out and check to see if you actually left those lights on, or staying put and taking the chance that you’ll come back to a car with a dead battery when you’re done inside, you can just check a website and see if your car’s lights are reporting themselves on.

If you’re interested in this concept, then don’t worry, because you’ll have plenty of time to start saving money. They won’t even start putting these in cars until later this year in the Wayne, Michigan Ford plant, so you probably won’t actually see one of these in car lots until at least 2012, possibly even the 2013 models. So save up now–your day is coming soon.

Tweet

You may also like:

Ford USB Music Box Provides Extra Options For The Connected...

CES 2012: Ford Sync Shows Off Latest Version Ahead Of Wider...

Facebook Menlo Park Headquarters Now Open...