BusinessWeek reports that Ford will offer a high tech “Work Solutions” package for its forthcoming F-150 pickups and commercial vans. Deep breath. The package includes a Bluetooth-enabled 6.5” in-dash touch-screen computer running Microsoft’s Windows CE and Windows Autos connected to the ‘net via Sprint cellular. Owners can radio-tag their tools using a “Tool Link” function. When the truck starts up, a pair of antennas scan the owner’s brain waves for thoughts of theft– I mean scan the vehicle looking for tools missing from a preprogrammed inventory list. "Think of Tool Link as no tool left behind," jests Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas and a living, breathing example of the theory. The “Work Solutions” package also includes fleet tracking and a lockable storage system for pickup beds. The electronic features will be available together or separately.
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I wish they gave an option of carriers other than Sprint, but the integration with tool tracking is a rather nice feature…I’m guilty of leaving tools lay in places and forgetting them.
With this and the MidBox, Ford is spending money it doesn’t have in territory usually made profitable only by aftermarket companies.
It’s this type of stuff that Ford and the dealers CAN make money on. I can sell a truck at invoice, but if I install the factory nav at the dealer, we make $$$ on it vs negotiating the profit away on a factory installed unit.
‘”Think of Tool Link as no tool left behind,” jests Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas (a living, breathing example of the theory)’
That line cracked me up.
Where’s Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) when you need him? Maybe he’s taking the Tool Link and/or Work Solutions keypads and dropping them in a septic tank. (To see if they meet durability standards : – )
Been tried before, Ford working with some nice folks from a company called Stargate Mobile which, far as I can tell, no longer exists. Here’s something from my archives from 2005:
StreamerNet Corporation and Stargate Mobile LLC today announced an agreement under which mobile audio/video streaming technologies will be offered as a standard option for Ford Motor Company F-150 and F-250 trucks shipped with the FORDLINK™ Mobile Office package.
Ford Motor Company announced the Mobile Office package in November at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas.
The essence of the Stargate Mobile Office initiative is to bring to market a system that features a rugged but lightweight, in-truck computer (Stargate) running Windows XP Professional with Microsoft Office capabilities, plus navigation with GPS, broadband/wireless Internet access, printing, along with order submission, payment processing capabilities, and a variety of other mobile computing applications such as StreamerNet audio/video solutions.
So whatever happened to that?
a 10-year-old-econoline is still a perfectly fine place for your new laptop.
a 10-year-old econoline with embedded computer hardware…is obsolete and a waste of money up front.
note to ford: build decent vehicles. period. that’s it. no joke.