Internet of Things (IoT) and the Australian Automotive Industry: what you need to know
The automotive industry is consistently evolving. And quite recently, one thing has revolutionised the way we drive: the Internet of Things (IoT).
Cheesy Car Accessories
I don’t know what it is about cars, but we tend to have much more of a personal relationship with them than we do with any other machine or gadget we own. For example, very few people give their lawnmowers nicknames (although I have met someone who named their heavy-duty rotovator Brutus). You don’t see many people putting bumper stickers on weed-whackers or polishing chainsaws. Motorbikes and boats get similar treatment, so my pet theory is that deep down, we think of cars and other forms of transport as a sort of mechanical horse or a type of animal, and we treat it accordingly (this also explains why the rotovator got named Brutus: it was big enough to fit into the mental category of “beast of burden”).
Anyway, because we have such a personal transport with our wheels, we like to personalize them a bit. And sometimes, some of the ways that we do it can be a bit on the cheesy side. I’m not talking about bumper stickers – although they can get pretty cheesy as well – or about bodykit. Some accessories get very cheesy indeed. Here’s a handful of some of the best (in terms of cheesiness, that is!).
The Ford CEO’s EV Road Trip Reality Check
Well, kudos where kudos is due. I came across an automotive news story recently that was too good not to pass on. It’s always good when you read of the CEO of any company getting out of their ivory tower or glass-walled office to get their hands dirty and/or do a bit of road-testing for themselves rather than letting those in the lower echelons do it. That’s exactly what happened recently in the case of Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford in the USA.
Ford USA has been putting a fair bit of R&D investment into the upcoming electrical ute, the F-150 Lightning (not yet available in Australia at the time of writing, but we can keep our fingers crossed). Now, the idea of this vehicle was that it was supposed to be for rural types in rural areas. The idea was to make the sort of thing that belongs in a Country and Western song: the trusty old pickup that can handle dirt roads. However, instead of just leaving things to the developers and the number-crunchers and the sort of people who test battery life and performance under ideal conditions, Mr Farley decided that the best thing to do was to pull a Bertha Benz and take the new vehicle out on the road, partly as a real-world road test and partly as a publicity stunt.
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