Tracking the 2011 Ford Fiesta's Mood, Thanks to a High-Tech Push

Just the Facts:

• Ford has developed an app for the 2011 Fiesta that gauges whether the car is happy or sad.
• The new mood app uses information gathered from "various vehicle data sensors or engine computer codes."

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — In what appears to be a surrealistic blend of emo music and the HAL 9000 computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame, Ford is tinkering with an app that tracks the mood of the 2011 Ford Fiesta.

The app, developed within the automaker's connected vehicle labs, gauges whether the small car is happy or sad, based on information gathered from "various vehicle data sensors or engine computer codes," said Ford in a statement unveiling its ambitious American Journey 2.0 project on Wednesday.

No word on if and when this mood-tracking ability will be available on production versions of the Fiesta.

The research project continues Ford's aggressive push to morph vehicles into what it calls "the ultimate mobile device." The American Journey 2.0 project includes a road trip by two Fiestas that kicks off today from the University of Michigan and ends in San Mateo, California.

A "happy" car is one that's "zipping along an open road or negotiating tight curves," explained Ford. Such an emotional evaluation is gleaned from powertrain sensors, such as engine rpm, speed, and steering inputs. Conversely, a "sad" Fiesta is likely to be stuck in traffic "at zero mph with the wipers on." The experimental version of the Fiesta, dubbed @AjtheFiesta, will automatically blog or tweet updates on its mood.

Ford said the road trip can be followed on Twitter or on Facebook.

The other experimental apps for the Fiesta include Virtual Road Rally and Caravan Track. Virtual Road Rally, among other things, allows users to post various parameters for a specific drive. "For example, a user could post the amount of fuel they used driving from A to B, and challengers would attempt to best that mileage," said Ford in a statement.

Caravan Track is a social networking transportation app developed by University of Michigan students as part of a 12-week course called Cloud Computing in the Commute.

"The car is the ultimate mobile device," said Venkatesh Prasad, group and technical leader of the Infotronics team in Ford Research & Advanced Engineering. "We're researching how to responsibly and safely harness the Internet to enhance drivers' time behind the wheel."

The Fiesta isn't the first vehicle to track the ups and downs of a vehicle and its user. The Toyota Pod concept, which debuted at the 2001 Tokyo Auto Show, was designed to express and respond to the changing emotions of the user. Lights on the vehicle turned orange when the car is "happy" or dark blue when it was about to run out of gas.

Inside Line says: Ford stopped short of HAL-type abilities for the Fiesta, such as lip reading. But it clearly is riffing off mood rings, one of the biggest fads of the 1970s. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent