If you're a "techno-geek" you'll love this...

I was just looking around on my computer and clicked a technology article related to traffic... and holy Bat Man! There are now search engines for cars! Who would have thought?

Actually, I know that there are GPS units in and on many cars but what I'm talking about here is something that's NOT optional... but appears to be Standard Equipment!

If you've read this particular post before, I had to come back and add in this paragraph... because... MY 20+ year old car does NOT have GPS. It does have a radio however (AM only) and I do have one of those things you can plug into your cell phone so you can talk and listen while driving and have BOTH hands on the steering wheel! I just wanted to clear that up...

That's right, FORD (YES, that big American Company, up in Michigan) has been testing and now I read that they have deployed these and I'm guessing that if not already... these systems will be in everything from the Focus on up to the top of the line by Spring.

So, you're asking what has me so excited? OK... you're driving along and you're getting sleepy and you ask yourself... Where's the nearest Starbucks? Instead, ask your system... by speaking to it... and it finds one for you and gives you turn by turn directions. How does it know?

First off, All these new Fords are GPS equipped and the system knows where YOU are! So it knows what area to look in for the nearest Starbucks for you. Or, if you want a pizza or a hamburger or whatever... just ask and that information is sent to you... all hands free so you're not using YOUR cell phone or PDA or whatever to look these addresses up.

The big deal here is that FORD see's this as a "make the customer happy" issue and also a BIG safety issue for their customers. If you can have your hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road instead of dialing your phone or texting... you're MUCH less likely to wind up in an accident... or at least that is the hope.

Want to read all about the "bells and whistles" of this system, just click the article's title above and it will whisk you right over to the blog where I found the article I mentioned earlier.

More neat car stuff soon,

Dave Perkins (aka: the HyperMiler)