Your next Ford will monitor your health
While several new cars come with nifty in-built technological systems that control all your entertainment, cell phone and temperature needs -- Ford has decided to take it one step further. The automotive giant plans to expand its Sync technology to enable people who suffer from diabetes and other chronic illnesses to monitor themselves and take precautionary measures.
Ford announced that it will work with several health and medical companies to come up with a diagnostic feature in its vehicles within the next one or two years.
"We want to create the car that cares," Gary Strumolo, Ford manager of vehicle design and infotronics said.
Ford will be working with Medtronic, a medical technology company in Minneapolis, WellDoc, a medical software developer, and SDI, a health care analytics company in Pennsylvania on the project.
WellDoc and SDI are, in fact, already developing smart phone applications for people to monitor their own health.
Drivers would essentially use the same wireless glucometers they use at home in their vehicles and the Sync-connected devices would then alert the driver if his or her blood-sugar levels were too high or low.
For the allergic amongst us, SDI has come up with an allergy alert system that will let drivers know the pollen counts for any area within the U.S. SDI will even help you trace the source of the pollen.
Critics have argued that the new systems could harm the drivers more than help them by being a distraction, however Ford insists that the company is working on measures to combat driver distraction.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com