The 2020 Explorer was a leader at Ford Motor with its embedded telematics.
During the last 12 months, Ford has secured agreements with key insurance carriers*, that can help customers save money on insurance premiums based on driver behavior, with built-in connectivity technology on many Ford and Lincoln vehicles#. Ford Insure and Lincoln Motor Company Insure also offer usage-based policies through FordPass and Lincoln Way apps. Connected vehicle data also enables the usage-based insurance products offered through Ford Credit’s insurance agency subsidiary, American Road Services Company. Telematics data is shared with insurance carriers through Ford’s embedded modem that is now standard on all new vehicles – and enables the carrier to use that information to analyze driving habits and offer potential savings. The embedded modem eliminates the requisite plug-in devices.
This is part of a sweeping change in the pricing of auto insurance. It also raises yet again larger privacy issues for the owners of connected vehicles along with intelligent phones , computers and appliances. A vast amount of owner information is now available to companies – from Google and social media apps or computers running on Microsoft Dos or Apple computers and iPhones – for resale or for their own cash flows, sometimes without owner’s consent or any usage fees given back to the creators of the data. In Ford’s case, customers have a choice. (AutoInformed on – Pew Research Center on Americans’ Views About Privacy, Surveillance and Data-Sharing)
FAA Grants Santa Claus Special Flight and Launch Permissions
Ho, ho, ho…
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted Santa Claus and his reindeer-powered sleigh special operating authority to engage in interstate air-cargo-delivery services directly to rooftops throughout the United States on Christmas Eve.
In addition, for the first time ever, the FAA issued Santa a special commercial space license for a crewed mission to the International Space Station using his StarSleigh-1 space capsule powered by the Rudolph Rocket. The mission license includes both launch and reentry operations and will occur from a U.S.-based spaceport.
Santa knows this Christmas is different from other years and agrees with the FAA decision to give priority to flights carrying COVID-19 vaccines and other cargo critical to the nation’s response to the ongoing public health emergency that was made worse by a naughty and decidedly not nice Republa-Grinch group. Follow Santa’s progress as he travels across the U.S. by visiting the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) website, where NORAD tracks Santa’s Christmas Eve voyage. Continue reading →