Finding the way through busy streets on two wheels can be daunting and for cyclists who take their eyes off the road to glance at navigation apps, this can also increase risk – both for them and for other road-users and pedestrians.

Now, some of our cycle-enthusiast employees have come up with a unique wearable that enables riders to find their way around more easily, and to more clearly display their presence and intentions to others, while connected to an app.

A post shared by Ford Europe (@fordeurope) on Jun 14, 2018 at 12:30am PDT

Tom Thompson, from Ford's smart mobility team

“We want to help people – and goods – move more safely, confidently and freely around our cities. The smart jacket concept helps us to better understand how the different players that a part of the urban mobility ecosystem are – cyclists, cars, and pedestrians – can better co-exist through the application of smart technologies and how we can apply those learnings to future ideas.”

The smart jacket concept has sleeves that light up to show when wearers plan to turn right or left. Wirelessly connected to a smartphone, the jacket’s bike-friendly navigation app vibrates the appropriate sleeve, so riders know which way to go, using routes that avoid busy roads and junctions.





And there is no need for cyclists to take their eyes off the road or their hands off the handlebars to consult a smartphone screen. Audible and haptic interfaces enable riders to take calls, receive messages and repeat navigation guidance. The jacket also integrates a flashing brake light.


Thompson who helped to develop the jacket in his spare time.

“There is an immediate change in mindset once there is no longer any need to stop to consult navigation apps directly on your phone – or worry if you’re heading into a particularly busy or dangerous road junction.”

The cyclists who developed the jacket and have been trialling it on their daily cycle commute to their offices in London are charged with researching the “last-mile” challenge. This refers to the last-leg of a journey not only in the context of a personal commute but also around delivering goods and services in dense and congested urban environments. This leg is generally associated with higher cost and more complexity.




The smart jacket concept ties our “Share The Road” campaign that aims to foster greater harmony and empathy between both drivers and cyclists. It also coincides with a week when cycling and technology take centre stage through Bike Week UK and London Tech Week 2018.



Bicycles are becoming ever more popular in urban environments for commuting, for recreation and for delivering goods and services. During the morning peak, cycling is in fact the most popular mode of transport in the City of London, one of Greater London’s districts, where around three times as many people now ride compared with in 1999. *

Developed with urban cycling clothing specialists LUMO and mobility software experts Tome, the smart jacket concept underlines our collaborative approach to innovation. Further advanced features in the pipeline would enable commercial dispatch riders to access calls and messages using hand gestures and voice commands. The use of bone-conduction headphones avoids blocking out sounds from pedestrians and other road users, as earbud headphones might do – sending sound to the inner ear via vibrations to the jawbone.




For now, the smart jacket remains a prototype. However, we are in the process of securing the patent that it might in future be further developed or licenced to others, along with the companion app and know-how.

Would you give up the convenience of a holiday flight to help slow down climate change?

That’s exactly what two groups of concerned snowboarders wanted to investigate during their trip from Brighton, England, to La Plagne, in the French Alps.

One group chose the fastest route, by plane, while the other group drove a Ford Mondeo Hybrid.

The goal was to compare carbon footprints to find out how much pollution could be avoided by choosing an alternative to the carbon-heavy plane journey, however, they also took in to account the journey duration, the experience and stress levels, and finally, the cost.

In addition to their baggage, the plane passengers also had a toddler with them, so did it all go smoothly, or was it the journey from hell?



You can also watch the teams full video below.

Students are enlisting the services of homeless people to sell soup on campus and try to avoid a life on the streets.

With our backing, the appropriately named Slurp, run by students at Edinburgh University, offers helpers an allowance, free lunch and a reference for prospective employers – and also ploughs profits into training opportunities and further education.

Team member Chris Marshall, 20

“After the breakdown of my family and mental health issues, I was homeless and living through hell. I existed on a few hours’ sleep every night and didn’t know when I’d eat next. Slurp’s support has given me the confidence to get back to my studies and a reason to get up every morning.”

Part of Slurp’s £10,000 grant was invested in cargo bikes. The enterprise was among the winners of our 2017 College Community Challenge and a runner up in our UK Innovation Challenge.

Camilla Nytun, a Slurp team leader

“If a young, homeless person feels they have no future, it’s great to know we can make a difference by teaching enterprise skills and allowing them to get back into a work routine. We’re changing lives, one soup at a time.”

Ford have been testing how filtered rainwater could be used to keep windscreens clean – an idea that pre-teen siblings Daniel and Lara Krohn stumbled upon during a family road trip.

When the heavens opened, their dad Gerd, who was driving, tried to clear away the smears, but the reservoir was empty – and the windscreen just got dirtier and dirtier.

11-year-old Daniel.

“It was a downpour. My sister and I thought that it was really funny that there was water everywhere – except for the windscreen wipers. Then the answer suddenly seemed obvious. Simply reuse the rainwater.”

Together with his nine-year-old sister, Daniel tested the idea by taking apart their old toy fire engine, fixing the pump to a model car, putting it inside an aquarium and adding a filter. That was enough to win first prize in a local science competition in Germany – and for +Ford Europe  to develop the prototype for a full-sized test car.

Theo Geuecke, who worked on the project.

“Daniel and Lara’s idea has been staring drivers in the face for decades – and it has taken one moment of ingenuity to bring it to life. In less than five minutes of rainfall the washer reservoir is completely full.”

The system could one day help save billions of litres of water.

Nicci Russell, managing director, Waterwise.

“What a brilliant idea! Innovations like these are essential to make the water we have go further. We will all need to change our behaviour to waste less water, but we’ll also need clever new bits of kit like the one Daniel and Lara have designed.”

Two years ago, Hafez Al-Moussa was one of 40 men, women and children, aboard a flimsy dinghy, making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, to Europe. He was one of the lucky ones – surviving the journey to seek a new start in Germany, after fleeing war-torn Syria.

As a child, Al-Moussa had helped to harvest the honey on the family farm, and this year he did so again, in his adopted country, as part of an innovative new project. Townbee was conceived to help refugees learn their host nation’s language and to integrate into their adopted societies, while also supporting the planet’s under-threat bee population.



Al-Mouassa, 28, who gave up civil engineering studies when he left his home country.

“Like the bees, we’ve struggled for survival. The first moments in Germany were difficult. Simple things like crossing a road or buying food are more challenging when you cannot speak the language. It was incredibly exciting to share the excitement of harvesting the first Townbee honey with my new German friends – who had never before seen a bee hive.”

The brainchild of a team of students from The Technical University of Munich, Townbee seeks a presence in every major city in Europe that has a significant refugee population. In Munich, the hives are in the gardens and rooftops of companies in the city centre and the honey is sold at local shops and markets. All proceeds go back into the project, and since joining, Hafez has enrolled at the same university, where he is now continuing his studies.


Hafez

“Townbee has helped me to meet people, share new experiences, learn the language and traditions of my new country, and more clearly see my future. As well as the friends I have made through the project, I also have 40,000 little bees who rely on me. Sometimes I tell them about my future hopes in Germany.” 

Townbee is among winners of the 2017 Ford College Community Challenge (Ford C3), an education program from +Ford Motor Company Fund that provides grants to student-led programmes focused on building sustainable communities.

Hannes Schroter, business student and Townbee project member.

“Learning a language and getting to know people in a new country are major challenges for refugees. This is a way that they can do that – and also help the bees to thrive.”

In the last 10 years, the challenge has contributed $3 million in grants to student teams around the world, including in the U.K. and Germany. Further winners this year include Slurp, which runs soup stalls on the campus of Edinburgh University, making and selling soup with disadvantaged youths; and “Café Ohne Worte” (Café Without Words), which employs, trains, and serves people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Next year the challenge is due to be extended to Spain.



Debbie Chennells Ford Fund’s manager in Europe.

“Taking on environmental and social challenges in one stroke, Townbee is an inspirational project to be involved with, and one that we at Ford are proud and privileged to be a part of.”

+Nate Murphy, who's a professional rock climber, has found an ingenious solution to the high accommodation costs he faces as he tours the world hanging off of high things; he’s turned his Ford Transit in to an awesome mobile hotel room.

Working by himself, Murphy took just 17 days to transform the Transit from reliable workhorse in to a homely high roller with an impressive array of essentials, including running water, central heating and solar power.



The van comfortably sleeps two and boasts a raft of smart features and innovative storage solutions that allow Murphy to live an extremely comfortable off-grid lifestyle all year round; his adventures have taken him to some of the most expensive cities in Europe where he lives on a shoestring.


+Nate Murphy

“I have lived out of the van for a year and I have travelled through Europe, Asia and the U.S.”

Watch +Nate Murphy's van conversion video.



Plenty of people dream of about going off-the-grid, living a more mobile, or downsized lifestyle, but few people turn that dream into a reality.


If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Let us know in the comments.

Images used with permission. Keep up with +Nate Murphy via his blog, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Facebook.

Ford is helping to develop a fleet of thousands of electric delivery vans based on the Ford Transit. The new battery-powered vehicles will be used by Deutsche Post DHL in Germany as part of their push to zero emissions.

StreetScooter GmbH, which is part of Deutsche Post – Europe’s largest mail services operator –already produced a small emissions-free van, also called StreetScooter.  They are now working with Ford on a second, larger vehicle.

Steven Armstrong, president of Ford in Europe

“E-Mobility and innovative traffic solutions for urban areas are key focuses for us as we transform our business to meet future challenges. As the leader in commercial vehicles in Europe, this partnership plays perfectly to our strengths and in StreetScooter and the Deutsche Post DHL Group we have a partner with enormous competence and a worldwide network.”

The Transit chassis will be equipped with a battery-electric drive train and fitted with a special body construction. Production is due to start next month.

Before the end of 2018 at least 2,500 #FordTransit based vehicles will support the emission free urban delivery traffic of @DeutschePostDHL

— Michael Baumann (@maikl_builder) June 14, 2017

Before the end of 2018 at least 2,500 vehicles will support Deutsche Post DHL Group on urban deliveries.

The Cheetah Metapopulation Project visit sites and relocates cheetahs around to ensure overall effective management of the species.



With the support of the Ford Wildlife Foundation and a new Ford Ranger, the Endangered Wildlife Trust will be able to conduct critical and vital conservation work ensuring good bloodlines and stable populations for the world’s fastest land mammal.