Ford Dealers Now Receive Real-time Assistance for Repairs via Electronic Headsets

Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn has declared that its dealerships throughout the country now have entry to state-of-the-art distant viewing engineering permitting them to obtain true-time guidance for purchaser repairs from staff customers at the Ford Complex Assistance Center (TAC) in Dearborn.

The two-way, hands-totally free digital headset, known as See What I See (SWIS), enables for both of those visual and audio interaction concerning the dealership experts and group customers at the Specialized Assistance Middle.

“The distant technology is built to support the professionals as they are doing work on vehicles — with the intention of growing performance and decreasing down time for shoppers,” claims David Inexperienced, normal assistance tools method professional at Ford. “This technological know-how modernizes and simplifies our operations, benefiting everybody associated.”

The technologies employs distant assistance software package that allows the specialized aid group to see what the dealership techs are looking at even though they function on the car or truck in authentic time. SWIS’s augmented reality capability permits TAC team users to display modified or increased photos on the headset for the supplier professionals to check out.

According to Green, “We experienced a person situation the place a technician noted the auto would not understand the lower tire pressure sensors. When the tech contacted the Hotline using SWIS, they rapidly uncovered out they had been employing the incorrect tool when they tech held it up in front of the digital camera. The moment the proper software was used, anything was programmed just the way it should.”

At the TAC headquarters, a workforce of about 150 specialists gets about 5,000 phone calls from dealership professionals throughout the U.S. each 7 days on the lookout for support or responses pertaining to a wide range of difficulties. Of these, about 200 can’t be identified by cell phone subject agents must be despatched out to verify out the difficulty in individual.

“SWIS definitely helps get our prospects back on the street more speedily. We’ve experienced some wiring circumstances that we ended up ready to resolve in a handful of hrs vs . a couple of times applying See What I See and which is really important,” states Susan Padro, service supervisor at Mullinax Ford in Apopka, Fla.

Ford has activated 1,200 of the headsets so considerably with more than 350 SWIS calls to TAC in the final 90 days. All US-based dealers really should have SWIS in their toolbox by November of this yr.

Currently, SWIS is for diagnostic aid, but designers are operating to enhance the headsets to include far more precise use cases these types of as H-VAC fears. Other employs conditions include things like gaining prior approval prior to changing a windshield by sending pics of the defect instantaneously.

Fleets are hunting to leverage the headset to guide a technician on web-site with particular electrical car or truck repairs instead sending an engineer allowing for for a lot quicker repairs and savings on vacation fees. Cell support groups are also looking at making use of SWIS to distant in from someone’s driveway where they are doing a company like tire changes.

Teaching remotely employing the headset concerning an instructor and a university student is yet another precious use situation to keep away from owning to show up at a distant schooling middle.

In connected news, Ford has announced that it will celebrate the 75^th anniversary of F-Sequence vans with the introduction of the 2023 F-150 Heritage Version — a modern-day acquire on the 1970s and ’80s two-tone exterior paint offerings featuring the vintage style.

Obtainable on XLT collection F-150 vehicles, the style will represent a fresh new interpretation of the traditional A-B-A exterior paint sample, with an A color encompassing roof and pillars, a B shade for the midsection, then A repeating on bumpers, reduce doorway and reduced physique.

Interior offerings in slate gray and black enhance the expressive exteriors. Distinctive seat trim addresses showcasing special inserts, as well as embossing on the console lid further enhance the uniqueness of the Heritage style and design. A white “75 Years” logo appears in the higher center windshield and is incorporated in the middle display screen startup animation and on the heart console.

Five shade choices are obtainable:

• Race Crimson midsection, with upper and reduced Carbonized Gray
• Atlas Blue midsection, with higher and lessen Agate Black
• Antimatter Blue midsection, with upper and reduce Carbonized Gray
• Avalanche midsection, with upper and decrease Agate Black
• Area 51 midsection, with upper and lower Agate Black

Pricing will be accessible when get banking institutions for the 2023 F-150 Heritage Edition open up in mid-July, with generation starting off this tumble.