American Journey 2.

0: Socially Networked Road Trip to Maker Faire

Two Ford Fiestas will leave the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, May 13, linked to each other and to the entire global community in ways
that mark a new era in mobile connectivity. Embarking upon a week-long research road trip to Maker Faire, Silicon Valley’s annual ideas
festival, the vehicles and their occupants will be serving as messengers from Ford announcing the arrival of the car as the
next technology platform. During the trip, the drivers will be using four experimental social media apps
engineered for in-car use, connected through cloud computing.

Virtual Road Rally “Auto”matic Blog Local Search Caravan Track

This app allows The car, known as This app, with This app,
users to define @AJtheFiesta, a built-in social developed by
points-of-interest automatically blogs media compo- U-M students,
(POIs) or physical or tweets its mood nent, can allows clusters of
goals and based on vehicle communicate vehicles traveling
landmarks, similar data sensors and with network- together to track
to those found in a conditions it ing site each other along
rally race. The app can take the form of a encounters on the Foursquare. Each time the vehicle the journey using vehicle telemetry,
“treasure hunt,” revealing information road. AJ will also be able to indicate makes a stop, it will check in with mapping and text-to-voice
about various POIs as drivers reach location via GPS and take photos to show Foursquare to identify its location, notifications. Information about road
them. It can also serve as a competitive other drivers the conditions that trigger its and it can also search for nearby conditions and hazards is sent via
drive app, allowing users to post various opinions. restaurants, gas stations and parks. multiple-choice interface that eliminates
parameters for a specific drive. the need to type.