Austin, Texas is a wired kinda town: you’re nobody if you’re not on Four Square, the barmen know as much about Android as they do fixing drinks, and every year it plays host to South By South West Interactive — a tech conference on a gargantuan scale.
This time 10,741 people have converged for the festival, which is their largest turn out to date, and I have the pleasure of being Wired’s ears and viewing spheres. Each day, in a special series of blog posts, I will report on an event that’s got me excited.
So, my first day. “Dude, This Is My Car” was a talk hosted by Ford R & D whizz TJ Giuli, and Paddy Srinivasan, founder of cloud computing company Cumulux. With many SXSW-ers plumping for the oversubscribed (and apparently below par) discussion about mobile user experience, Giuli’s revelations about his company’s plans for networked vehicles was under-attended but intriguing.
The gist: Ford will soon create an “App Store” for cars, allowing developers to build programs that will run on customisable displays even in its cheaper (web-enabled) models. Given that vehicles already collect a vast amount of data about how you drive, combining this information with geosocial networking platforms throws up exciting possibilities.
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