C’mon I couldn’t end 2006 without a final Observation on the News. This one is truly an observation along the road, because we know all too well that’s where Fords are often found (as I can attest from my 1992 Mercury Sable).
Yesterday’s Detroit News is reporting that Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to put Microsoft technology in the form of software and computers in Ford automobiles. The goal is to bring wireless Windows connectivity into the automobile. The new technology will be called Sync, according to a report in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the deal. Those sources said it will use Bluetooth technology to allow wireless connections between Ford automobiles and devices like the Apple iPod or cellular telephones. Drivers would then be able to use the system for hands-free calling, as well as for music and a variety of other applications.
The mind just boggles at this announcement. Can you imagine the effect of a “blue screen of death” at the wrong time? Cars infected with viruses or worms? Drivers distracted by software that won’t work until you download an update?
Somehow, this strikes me as a bad idea. There’s a reason that cars should have specialized computers, if they have computers at all. Windows, with its gazillion lines of code, isn’t the answer for everything. We don’t (horrors) need the Internet everywhere.
Perhaps there’s a reason Toyota is taking the number 2 slot.
