Ford, Toyota, GM Connect to Customers' Health

　　福特、豐田和通用汽車展示了能將汽車變成移動健診中心的新科技，這項科技包含了多種的電子化系統，能夠偵測心跳、血糖數據、空氣品質以及健康檢查狀況等。這項科技的發展對高度電子化的現代車輛來說並不困難，因為車輛都已經具備了像是感應器、無線網路通訊等裝置。而這個需求的開發是考量到美國有兩千六百萬的人患糖尿病。福特全球形象與未來發展部門的負責人Sheryl Connelly認為消費者的想法是：「如果我的行動可攜式裝置可以監測我的健康，那為什麼我的車不行呢？」畢竟對消費者而言，在日常生活中花了不少的時間在他們的車上，並預估未來這樣的趨勢會增加。但在這樣科技新知發展的過程中，如何與個人隱私達到權衡仍是未知的問題。

　　Americans would agree that they don’t want carmakers in the bedroom or their accountant’s office. But what about their doctor’s office?

　　Ford, Toyota and General Motors are among auto companies developing and demonstrating new technologies that could turn their vehicles into rolling health clinics, with various types of telematics (electronic systems) able to monitor heart rates, blood-sugar readings, air quality for asthmatics and other safety criteria and medical conditions.

　　The technology is relatively "easy" because modern cars already are highly advanced electronic environments full of sensors, digital readouts, wireless-communications devices and other essential building blocks of medical-monitoring systems. And automakers argue that the need is a crying one: About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and 26 million Americans have diabetes.

　　To them, taking the next step seems obvious too. “If my cell phone, wrist watch and other portable devices can monitor my health, why not my car?” Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s head of global consumer trends and futuring, told brandchannel about the brand's telematics collaboration with Medtronic and other health and wellness providers. “The device that does the monitoring is of little consideration as long as it is seamlessly integrated into the way I live my life.”

　　And consumers, of course, live much of their lives in their cars. “People spend almost an entire week a year on the road and that’s expected to increase,” said Paul Mascarenas, Ford’s chief technology officer, about expanding Ford's in-car Sync system to monitor the driver, too. “The car is a private space for conducting personal business. We see health and wellness as a core area.”

　　But couldn’t drivers lose privacy if they subject themselves to a massive new overlay of medical monitoring in their vehicles which, according to Ford, could include wellness “coaching and education?” In an era of increasing clashes between knowledge and privacy, that could be a bump in the road.

LINK:http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/08/02/GM-Ford-Toyota-Connected-Health.aspx#continue