Ford Transit Connect Gets Personal Touch

Ford Transit Connect Gets Personal Touch - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

The Family One has a clear acrylic divider that splits the van into “mom space,†which is up front, Mr. Lee said, and “kid space,†in back. Among the other immediately noticeable features are the dual monitors on the bulkhead part of the divider. Mr. Lee, who built the concept car with Joe Rork in Ford’s computer research department, pointed out that they weren’t monitors, but “screens†for two projectors neatly hidden above the front seats.

At that point, Mr. Lee pulled out his iPhone and scrolled through the menus in search of an application. “You know we have everything in our lives streaming on the iPhone,†he said. He found what he was looking for and then used his iPhone to control the volume inside the Family One. “There’s no reason we can’t control our car with it.â€
Interaction was a main motivation behind the concept. “How you interact with the vehicle,†Mr. Lee said. Moving to the back of the Family One, he pulled out a shade that extended from the roof, calling it an awning. There were two toy scooters folded and packed in the rear door. The storage area also has a place for walkie talkies, Legos, backpacks, a “virtual lava lamp†and even a surprise.

Mr. Lee opened a compartment under the trunk floor (where you’d expect to find a spare tire) and revealed — a baby stroller. “We happened to find a stroller that you could fold up and fit into the vehicle,†he said, pulling it out in one motion, and — voila! — snapping it into form on the auto show floor.

One of the main electronic features of the Family One is a radio frequency identification antenna in the rear ceiling. Several objects inside the van, like bicycle helmets and a baby seat, had R.F.I.D. tags, which were the size of a sale price tag. The R.F.I.D. system was able to alert the driver (mom or dad) of objects missing from the van through graphic displays on the touch-screen monitor on the dashboard. An R.F.I.D. tag on the baby seat could measure tension and level to insure proper installment of the seat into the vehicle.