Ford announces new Kuga at MWC 2016

Ford has announced today that it will unveil the new Ford Kuga SUV during the Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona this week.

If you were wondering what the hell is a car doing on a fair for mobile things, keep on reading.

Besides the new SUV, Ford is also announcing that its connectivity technology SYNC 3 is coming to Europe. Moreover, it will expand its Ford Smart Mobility plan by tripling the investment.

Ford’s plan is to transition from a carmaker, to an auto and a mobility company. Basically, it’s building autonomous and semi-autonomous cars, too.

The company said it is taking two different paths to autonomous vehicles -- on one side there’s a dedicated team developing autonomous tech, while on the other is the Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection – a couple of radars and cameras scanning the road around the car, detecting people and other cars.

To make all of that happen, it needs a customer experience platform, which is why it’s debuting FordPass in Europe this year. Its partners will be BP and Mobile City. FordPass also will integrate Ford Carsharing, run with Germany’s Flinkster Carsharing.

"As we look to the future, it is clear we are on the cusp of a revolution in mobility -- from car sharing to autonomous driving to the customer experience", said Ford CEO Mark Fields. "Technology and innovation provide us with the opportunity to address these trends and to make people’s lives better by changing the way the world moves".

"The use of semi-autonomous functions such as Traffic Jam Assist and Fully Active Park Assist make driving easier and more enjoyable for our customers", said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering.

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