Ford Evos Concept: Delving Deeper into Truly Integrated In-Car/Lifestyle Tech

Mercedes and BMW have recently unveiled concepts showcasing what drivers can look forward to five or ten years down the line.

Now it's Ford's turn.

We've had a chance to take a deeper look at the Ford Evos concept that bowed at the Frankfort motor show last month, and we must say the Blue Oval has actually raised the bar in imagining the car of the future. In a bit right out of a sci-fi movie, the Evos concept does a good bit of your thinking for you (don't worry, it's not the part that deals with driving) -- and looks really good doing it with a four-seat fastback model incorporating four (!) gullwing doors that, when opened simultaneously, give the impression of a GT that can fly. (Or can it fly? I don't think it can, but I should double-check on that.)

The Evos builds upon Ford's SYNC infotainment system to seamlessly integrate cloud computing possibilities into the car. The idea is to utilize -- and personalize -- a driver's habits and preferences into the experience of driving, but without the driver having to physically input any information himself. Think of the car as an extension of a discreet
butler service, totally aware of your situation and making sure you are where you need to be, with all the details taken care of for you.

Example: the car, wirelessly connected to home and office computers and other systems, recognizes a calendar change pushing your 8:00 AM meeting until 10:00 AM; the Evos communicates with your alarm clock to give you an extra hour of sleep -- then when you're about ready to hit the road, the car starts and warms itself to your favorite temperature (seasonally adjusted, naturally). As you pull out of the drive way, the Evos communicates to your home system that you have left the area, and automatically turns off your coffeemaker and lights, and closes your garage door behind you.

The Evos continues to adapt to your habits and changing situation on the road: the cloud connection feeds real-time location data that, combined with accumulated driver habit information, will automatically switch the powertrain to electric-only around a child's school or emission zone restriction area, then back to full-throttle use for high-performance highway driving. Plus, the concept features an intelligent recharging paradigm that can find a parking spot near your office -- one that lines up over an inductive charging station to recharge guide you to a parking spot near your office, that would line up over an inductive charging station that would recharge your vehicle's batteries while you work. (As with many concepts, the infrastructure for which the vehicle is built is even more a fantasy than the vehicle itself.)

“At Ford, the future of technology in the car will be defined by the experience that it delivers to the driver and passengers,” said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and vice president of Ford Research and Innovation, “The possibilities are fascinating when we explore how to enable a seamless lifestyle between home, office and car linked by access to the driver’s personal information.”

Check out the video below for more of what's to come from Ford. Hopefully, something akin to what the Evos offers will actually see the light of day because, unlike a lot of in-car tech improvements that let you do the same fairly inconsequential tasks (change the climate control, listen to text messages), only better, what the Evos promises are the kinds of perfectly integrated lifestyle/technology​ applications that you wonder how you ever lived without. But only after you've experienced them.