Introducing the Ford Mobile Application: A Comprehensive Guide to Electric Vehicle Ownership
As I sit here with my Ford mobile application, it's clear that this is more than just a simple dashboard display for your car. The app is designed to integrate seamlessly into your lifestyle, providing a suite of tools and features that make owning an electric vehicle (EV) easy, efficient, and fun.
The First Glance: An Overview of the App
Upon launching the app, you're greeted with a clean and simple interface that belies the wealth of information and functionality available within. The first glance reveals basic information about your car, such as its current charge level (51% in my case) and estimated driving range (46 miles). However, dig deeper, and you'll discover a treasure trove of features that make owning an EV a breeze.
Personalizing Your Vehicle
One of the standout features of the Ford mobile application is its ability to personalize your vehicle. I've named my car "Dylan Zv," giving it a unique personality that makes it feel more like an extension of myself. This personalization extends to the app's recognition of specific locations, allowing you to set customized charging schedules based on where you live and work.
Customized Charging Schedules
Speaking of charging schedules, one of the most innovative features of the Ford mobile application is its ability to recognize your location and adjust your charging schedule accordingly. In my case, I've set up a custom charging schedule that charges my car between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., taking advantage of cheaper electricity rates during these off-peak hours. If I were to charge my car elsewhere, the app would simply revert to its standard charging schedule.
Gamification and Social Sharing
The Ford mobile application also incorporates gamification elements, using badges and achievements to motivate you to drive more efficiently and save even more energy. For example, I've earned a badge for saving 23 miles of driving range last week, which adds a fun competitive element to my daily commute. This social aspect is designed to encourage users to share their progress with friends and family, fostering a sense of community among EV owners.
Remote Control and Vehicle Locator
One of the most practical features of the Ford mobile application is its remote control capabilities. I can lock and unlock my car from anywhere using my smartphone, which is particularly convenient when I forget where I parked it. The app also includes a vehicle locator feature, allowing me to track my car's location in real-time.
Personalized Data and Settings
The Ford mobile application takes personalized data to the next level with its ability to tailor settings based on your specific needs. For example, I can set a default wake-up temperature of 72°F (22°C), which allows the app to adjust the car's charging schedule to minimize energy usage during this time. The app also incorporates personalized data from Microsoft's utility companies, providing users with access to the best times to charge their cars at the cheapest rates.
Leaderboards and Competitions
Finally, the Ford mobile application includes a leaderboard feature that tracks your progress over a rolling 30-day period. This provides a fun competitive element, as well as a sense of accomplishment when you beat your previous scores. The app also allows users to view top performers in various categories, making it easy to see how others are doing and identify areas for improvement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Ford mobile application is a comprehensive tool that makes owning an electric vehicle easy, efficient, and fun. With its suite of features, personalized data, and social sharing elements, this app is designed to provide users with a seamless driving experience. Whether you're a seasoned EV owner or just starting out, the Ford mobile application is an essential companion that's sure to enhance your daily commute.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey this is Dereck with mobile Nations reporting today for crackberry Android Central and imore.com we're here today with Ford uh we're going to be talking about some mobile applications that you are working with to integrate with the new Focus Electric this is my Ford mobile and application that we developed to go along with the Focus Electric to help a fire of the Focus Electric get used to e lifestyle so instead of just being a a uh simple dashboard of what's going on there's a whole Suite of tools in here that I'll show you in a minute the first glance here we're going to see just a little bit of information it looks nice and simple but you'll see that there's a lot in here our car is plugged in we can see that we have 51% charge it says I have 46 Mi of driving based on that but you look further you see that I've named my car Dylan zv gives it like a little bit of a personality I can name it anything I want Dylan zv is what I chose for this is at home and that's important because the car recognizes at home there's a specific set of rules on how to charge it's waiting until 9:00 p.m. tonight to charge because it's cheaper there if I were to plug it in somewhere else it would just simply uh use the regular charging schedule and charge up if I needed to have my car before 11:00 p.m. based on this I can simply push the button here swipe over to oh twice charge now and now my car is charging and it'll be ready much much sooner I also have this list of accomplishments that I have done by driving my focus EV you can see that I have a CO2 saved of 23, 2310 lb and money saved of $366 now this is not some random number this is because I actually went in the website and put in the vehicle that I the other vehicle I drive and the mileage that comes off of that and this tells me that I actually save $366 in gas by choosing to drive this instead of my other vehicle okay also have my driving scale of Zippy to Zen Zen being those that are really really efficient in the way they drive Zippy being more like me where hey it's got a lot of torque this is a fun car to drive and you know I do a little bit I don't need all 100 miles of rain so instead I I take my 20 M commute and make it a lot of fun I also have my achievements here which is exactly like this is gamification Ford style it's it's uh like the Xbox Live achievements or maybe four square badges where you get them for not only um hitting mile markers like miles driven or something like that but also learning about the application so signing up from my Ford mobile setting up your first value charge which get to in a minute but there's all kinds of stuff and we also have some hidden secrets in here too that'll be a lot of fun that people will find later I've got the the first integrated uh charge station finder here other applications you can you can find charge stations but you have to open up a third party application or something specific our partner Map Quest has gone out and gotten all of that data and put it together in here so you can simply find it right here all right we also have our our trip planner and this is kind of a a rangefinder so a a typical EV driver already thinks in a plug to plug mentality I'm going to unplug I'm going to hit these three stops and I'm going to plug back in afterwards so you can see here we've kind of do done the same thing we made it much much easier I'm going to start my journey at my car's current location cuz it' be silly to start anywhere else I'm going to end at a place where I can plug in and then in between I'm going to start to put places that I need to stop off it is dinner time so we're going to stop and get some pizza I hit search and it's going to do uh a search on pizza that's around not in order of around my car or around home but what is the best run of pizza joints between those two locations you give it to me in that order so then I just sit there and randomly select a pizza joint say that's the one I want and then unfortunately for this demo they're all really really close so you're going to see that I'm only going a mile away and a mile back but if it were a little bit further it would predict it takes a prediction and says this is what we think it's going to be based on your driving range okay and if it were something where it's kind of keep close to what your range is it'll give you a tip based on your driving to say perhaps you should lay off the accelerator a little bit and uh you might make it there much better all right also it is personalized data so if you and I were sharing a car and you drove uh Zen and I drove Zippy your range estimates would be very different and your results here will be very different for me we also have our ability to remote control lock unlock uh remote start the car our vehicle locator so that if it's um somewhere around town and I forgot where I parked it it'll R me to it our vehicle info to make sure that everything's running fine but this is some some cool stuff here this is my go times so I can tell the car I need to leave 6:00 every morning and I want it to be 72° for me so instead of burning my battery to make the car warm it uses wall power which of course a makes it nice and toasty for me but also doesn't deplete my range by trying to make it warm instead of getting me down the road I also have the uh default value charge or the value charge profiles which is uh our partner Microsoft went around to all the utility companies in the country got all the data on their different plans and made it much much easier for our customers to just simply say this is where I live this is the that I have and that's it after I set that up the car will automatically receive information from Microsoft on the best times to charge at a cheapest point and the car will do it automatically I don't have to do anything after I set that up last but not least there's quite a bit in here you can get this demo off the iTunes soon or your your uh regular uh app stores we also have local rankings this is a set of competitions or leaderboards that are a rolling 30-day window it's like um I would say points in four square right gives it a bit of a social aspect yeah absolutely a couple different reasons it's a leaderboard and and the reason we want leaderboards is number one competition's fun let's see how I did and number two if I'm really trying to sit there and figure out how do I become a zen master and I just can't quite do it I can look at the list of the top 10 Z Master to say hey why don't you give me some tips on how I do it keep that that Community going too excellent so in an nutshell that's my Ford mobile a whole bunch of uh uh applications combined together to make driving EV very very easy okay now this is uh working with the Focus Electric right now currently it's working with the Focus Electric it will be available for all of our electric vehicles okay and right now we're demoing on the iPhone is this going to be on any other platforms it will absolutely launch on the iPhone Android blackberry and on the web as well excellent thank you very much welcome this has been uh Derek with mobile Nations at Ford CES 2012\n"