Plans to offer telematics services in various Ford Motor Company products have been called into question with the company's decision to scrap its Wingcast program with the Qualcomm mobile phone company.
The idea was to join the market currently dominated by GM's OnStar system and offer various services like routing, emergency response, e-mail, web access, concierge assistance, and other things into the car. Canada was scheduled to start getting the services two years from now, but all that's up in the air now.
Ford says it still believes in the future of telematics and will try to contract for some, but it doesn't believe that the technology qualifies as a basic automotive system, and in today's back-to-basics policy at the mega-money losing firm, that makes it expendable.
When it was unveiled by former CEO Jacques Nasser, Wingcast was billed as being a ''game changer'' that would provide a constant cashflow after the vehicle was sold.