Does Your Car Really Need Social Networking?

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This is both funny and a little frightening: According to our friends over at Core77, Ford is adding social networking to their cars via touchscreen and steering wheel controls. Ford’s product development chief, Derrick Kuzak, says they’re just giving the everyday people what they want: “We saw people becoming addicted to connectivity and we saw increased use of these devices inside the car and we connected the dots.”

By 2015, you’ll be able to receive text messages and send standard text responses by voice command — at least in 80% of models. They’re still researching the ability to convert speech to a text message. They’ll also have web browsing and “iPod-style thumb controls.” Because you know how the kids love their iPods.

If all of this hoopla sounds distracting, don’t worry. Kuzak insists that all of this inter-connectivity is all completely safe. “Most of the industry studies show that just driving and just talking is the same. As long as the customer’s eyes are on the road, they are not compromised.”