14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows platform is becoming ubiquitous in a sense that goes beyond the near-monopoly on the client operating system market. The fact of the matter is that the Windows brand and product is slowly but surely making its way into all aspects of the mundane life. The video embedded at the bottom of this article is an illustrative example of such a scenario. It features Windows CE 5.0, a part of a project named Microsoft Auto.
The end purpose of Microsoft Auto is to provide a Windows platform integrated with automotive hardware that comes with basic capabilities, such as mobile device integration, speech recognition, and infotainment. Just watch the video, it's all there, with Ford Sync as the star, proving Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' point of the power of natural user interfaces.
"Microsoft launched our Microsoft auto product in Europe with Fiat, and they've done a fabulous job running our software, and then last year we announced a partnership with Ford to produce what is called Ford Sync. That's powered by our Microsoft auto software. In the United States Ford expects to ship nearly a million Sync-enabled cars next year, and they are expanding it across their line of Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln cars, including this new 2008 Lincoln MKS," revealed Robert J. Bach, President, Entertainment & Devices Division.
At the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft took Sync one step further. With the advent of Sync 2.0, the Redmond company and Ford are now allowing the car to use the drivers' mobile phone in order to make an emergency 911 call in case of an accident. Ford had to break down some barriers in order to get the U.S. government to accept 911 Assist calls without human intervention, but in the end it managed to offer the functionality to its customers. But just watch the Ford Sync demo courtesy of Velle Kolde, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Auto and Nick White, Microsoft Product Manager in order to get an idea of what else the product does.
"One of the things that Ford is going to offer is a new upgrade to Sync, which they call 911 Assist. Basically the way 911 Assist works, if the airbag deploys on the car, the software will tell you, I'm going to make a 911 call. And unless you stop it, it will then automatically call 911, so that emergency services arrive to help you out. So, that gives you some idea of what's going on in the car space," Bach added.