AJ, the Ford Fiesta that sends Twitter messages.On Twitter, no one knows you’re a car.
The social networking, micro-blogging trend is already a mainstay of the tech-savvy generation, but why would anyone want a car to send Twitter messages? And how is that possible?
The car that could Twitter is AJ, a 2011 Ford Fiesta that’s a test bed for company engineers exploring the boundaries of what’s possible when an automobile is connected to the Internet and all of its concomitant services. In May, a team of Ford engineers drove AJ from Ann Arbor, Mich., to San Mateo, Calif., to participate in the Maker Faire. Along they way, AJ sent out Twitter messages.
“It’s getting pretty dark; time to put the headlights on,” was a typical entry, but followers also learned when AJ’s mood was “joyful.” But how could a car be joyful?
“There’s no traffic, and it’s not raining and it’s enjoying a winding road,” said Joe Rork, an information technology architect with Ford’s in-vehicle research and strategy team. Mr. Rork recalled the journey recently during a presentation in Manhattan. He explained that AJ was indeed sending the messages on its own.
The software behind AJ was an app called the “Auto”matic Blog. It tapped into the available data on the car, including telemetry information, like location, speed, acceleration and braking. It also gleaned information from the windshield wipers, steering input and GPS data and correlated it with live information culled from the Web.
So AJ’s software could combine, say, real-time traffic notices about congestion with its current situation (stop-and-go braking) and weather forecasts (storms ahead) and then send a Twitter entry like, “Stuck in traffic; not looking forward to next 50 miles, either.”
The Twitter app wasn’t the only connected software the Ford engineers tested. The group also ran the location-based Foursquare app, through which the car could automatically check the team in at restaurants and tourist spots along the way (and send pictures). Also being tested was a program developed by University of Michigan students called Caravan Track, which allows a group of fellow travelers to be automatically apprised of their friends’ locations and conditions up ahead.
But why would anyone want to do this? Ford is already on track to add smartphone apps, including a Twitter feed, to its Sync-based cars later this year. It has also announced that it will enable other phone apps to connect to its cars, essentially allowing third-party software programs to use a vehicle’s built-in controls, like buttons on the steering wheel, to control programs, including music players running on connected Android phones. The tests with AJ were a natural extension of this strategy, according to Mr. Rork, to see what’s possible when the car is connected and online all the time.
Interestingly, mainly off-the-shelf hardware was used, including a high-speed cellular data connection, a Wi-Fi router and a Dell computer running Windows 7 in the trunk. It means just about any car could be turned into a Twittermobile. And as for those who scoff at the idea that anyone would want to receive messages from a car, consider that even though AJ rarely sends messages these days, he still has more Twitter followers than I do.