International technology fair CES 2016 brought us many new gadgets and products of all kinds, and now it’s Ford’s turn, who want to tell us about the future of cars.This is the future according to the American company, with connectivity, drones, and autonomous cars. Read all about it in this story!

World-renowned company Ford also had a lot to show during CES 2016 at Las Vegas, Nevada, where they announced all the new features coming to their cars, their new drones, and connectivity features coming to their products – all of which look very promising and interesting.

They had a keynote where they explained their vision, with their new connectivity features integrated and new software coming to their cars, such as the SmartDeviceLink which allows interaction between our favorite smartphone apps and the car through voice commands, so the driver never has to take his hands off of the steering wheel. FORD Sync creates a link between vehicles and smart homes, and allows the cars and specific devices to communicate so the user can turn devices on or off from their car. What’s more, many of their vehicles and drones use SYNC AppLink which benefits from these connectivity features to help when it comes to emergencies related to climatic catastrophes or accidents.

One of the most acclaimed features deals with the connection between vehicles and smarthomes. With this we refer to having the ability to use voice commands to control lightning, heater, security and many other features from our smart homes from the comfort of our car. An example of this would be, say, having the ability to program our garage once it detects we’re within certain distance of the door, and use light of our choosing to welcome the driver. Wouldn’t that be neat? Ford SYNC Connect along with 4G LTE technology allows to control doors, check fuel or find our exact parking location straight from our phone which are all quite useful features, especially for those of us that happen to forget exactly where in the parking lot we were.

Finally, Ford also told attendees about a future in which vehicles and drones can work together, particularly useful if our area has been affected by, say, an earthquake, tsunami or other natural catastrophes. This inspection system will be used by the United Nations to reach inaccessible areas, and the first vehicle capable of using this technology will be the Ford F-150.

In order to hasten the development of autonomous cars, Ford are currently producing three times as many proofs of concepts, and has just recently released some 30 Mondeo Hybrid in California, Michigan and Arizona among other areas to try them out. These vehicles use a sensor called PUCK which guarantees precision when it comes to 3D mapping a new area in real time.

Investigation and engineering vicepresident Ken Washington ended the presentation explaining how Ford are trying to bring the best from each area of their business together in order to increase the quality of life of everyone, and their consumer base above all.

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