Ford’s new Mustang gets spectacular launch at top of Burj Khalifa

In future, cars will be equipped with technologies to send signals to one another about traffic jams and reroute drivers, the Ford chairman envisioned.

Ford chairman Bill Ford poses next to a Ford Mustang at the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, on Dubai November 19, 2014. Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
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DUBAI // Fancy being able to find out about bumper to bumper traffic before you’re forced to join it?

It’s no fancy, says Bill Ford, chairman of the US car maker Ford Motor Company.

Mr Ford, in Dubai yesterday for a Hollywood-inspired launch of the new Mustang at the Burj Khalifa, says technology will allow drivers to send each other signals warning of traffic jams.

He said gridlocks in major cities would only worsen and a “leap in thinking” was needed to develop technology that eased congestion.

“For most of my adult life I worried about, ‘how am I gonna sell more cars and trucks’?” Mr Ford said, amid celebrations for Mustang’s 50th birthday.

“But today I worry about, ‘What if all we do is sell more cars and trucks?’”

He said that in the future, cars would be able to spot potholes and alert authorities, check a driver’s vital signs, and measure and filter allergens in the air. But the industry needed to rethink its approach.

“We can’t just keep making and selling automobiles the way we always have,” Mr Ford said.

Governments will eventually have a role to play in these developments but “it’s early days yet”.

Universities are still the main centres of research for devices that allow vehicles to communicate with each other.

Meanwhile, Mr Ford said he did not think the current low oil prices would dissuade people from buying fuel-efficient vehicles. “Fuel is a cost and any time we can save our customers money, I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

“I believe our point of view of greater fuel economy coupled with better performance is absolutely the right way to go.” Ford recently established a business unit in Dubai to serve the Middle East and Africa. The great-grandson of company founder, Henry Ford, said the Michigan car maker would continue to promote green technology.

Mr Ford pledged to launch 25 vehicles in the region by 2016, including the all-new Mustang, which will hit the roads next year. Industry sales in Middle East and Africa are expected to grow 40 per cent to 5.5 million vehicles by 2020.

newsdesk@thenational.ae