As part of our effort to support the migration to 4G and Wireless Broadband, I have been talking to friends who do M2M technologies.

We are on the cusp of some major opportunities because of the wide spread availability promised in 4G.

One friend who is enjoying the opportunities, is at Ford working on the next phase of their telematics offering. Ford Motor Company and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Go Blue!) have launched a project called the "American Journey 2.0". 

It gives students access to a Ford developmental operating system so these students can test and program new applications in search of the "what's next" for in-car connectivity. This includes the current systems -- equipped with an on-board text-to-speech engine, data-over-voice technology, a GPS receiver, and an off-board routing engine and information services network accessed through a voice portal. 

The students are looking for the ways that interacting with social networks while in the car as part of their journey. Yes, this means Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter, but let's go beyond that. Right now we have 'COPS' and other shows that show us the police car's camera. What if the car had pictures to share? This is not your grandfather's Kodak (News - Alert) Carousel. It's an ability to interact more. How often have you wanted to take a picture of something that you were passing by only to have it…pass by. If the system was storing video with a delay you could probably post something to friends on your network.  

Eyes on the Road & Hands on the Wheel.

Speech Recognition and audio controls for the console are essential for the next phase of these systems and Ford and Microsoft's (News - Alert) SYNC system has yielded some interesting stats that suggest that the risk of distraction is cut by more than half when using voice commands.

This is definitely a battle for the young.  "Microsoft "Millennials in Automotive Survey 2009" reported that 77 percent of those surveyed use social networking sites, 50 percent subscribed to more than one site; 64 percent frequented them daily; and 33 percent reported spending 30 minutes or more for each visit. In 2010, the Millennials will make up 28 percent of the driving population, up 9 points from just 2004, making it a powerful consumer group to target."

Ford and UM used open source methods to look at what was available data coming from the vehicle to determine what interactions they could establish and how it would be used by the driver.

Currently they are developing applications based on the analysis which they intend to present this spring.