The recent 2013 edition of Further with Ford, the automaker’s annual expo of its emerging technology and engineering, took a very hands-on approach this year to aid the efforts rebuilding struggling Detroit.
This year’s two-day Further with Ford event was the second follow-up conference to the original technology seminar series, Forward with Ford. This Dearborn offering featured looks at branding innovations, connectivity, green technology and other advancements for America’s largest automaker.
The first day’s individual seminars included 60 minute looks at Disrupting the Drive, Sculpting the Future, Returning to Your Senses and Greentopia. Expert celebrities on hand included Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer fame, bestselling author Seth Godin and Ford design guru J Mays.
Some of the academic balloon juice of the first days was lost on gearheads like me, but I did get a chance to look at some impressive, future-minded vehicles like the massive Ford Atlas Truck (below), the Fiesta ST and the 2014 Ford Mustang (just a fleeting glimpse of the design)
The F-150 is a major Dearborn presence. As the top selling pickup in the world, its sales figures register something like one sold every 40+ seconds somewhere in the world. Only the Toyota Camry keeps the F-150 from becoming the top selling vehicle in the world, period.
Sadly, Dearborn sits in the shadow of an American failure — the tragedy of metropolitan Detroit. We all know this story. Once a top five American city, Detroit’s population has plummeted in the wake of corruption, mismanagement and an unwillingness to evolve past tired politics and archaic practices.
While the city is engaged in a controversial bankruptcy (unable to pay more than 100,000 creditors, according to some reports), Detroit authorities are destroying and entire abandoned neighborhoods and transforming them into green space.
Habitat for Humanity is on hand in The Motor City, constantly working to build affordable housing for residents looking to remain and restore Detroit’s lost greatness. Since Ford Motor Company is instrumental in Detroit’s hopes for recovery (build such massive downtown developments as Ford Field), the automaker put Further with Ford attendees to work delivering lumber to Habitat from the backs of brand new F-150s.
The symbolism was unmistakable. Ford helped to build Detroit, and its F-150 truck is a major presence on most building sites across the country. By employing an American success story like the F-150 for a day to support an American rebirth effort like Habitat for Humanity’s housing efforts, Ford is putting the message out there that it’s in the greater Detroit area to stay and invested in the effort to restore and transform the city in the future.
