Most of us are aware of Bill Ford, Jr.'s obsession with green technology that will help conserve fossil fuels while at the same time preserving the environment, but what you may not know that the Ford family scion is also very much interested in the future of gridlock.

Ford spoke at the Technology Entertainment and Design 2011 conference (better known as TED) to discuss the growing problem, and it appears the traffic buildup has just begun. The Ford Motor Company Chairman said in the post-jump video that the population of the planet is expected to jump from 6.8 billion people to about nine billion by mid-century. And with other countries around the world continuing to prosper, we could see cars and trucks on the road grow from today's 800 million vehicles to between two and four billion by 2050. That's a big jump, and when you consider that the typical commute in Shanghai is now about five hours, you can see how big a problem gridlock can become.

Hit the jump to read Ford Motor's TED conference press release, then feel free to watch video of Ford's speech. Towards the end of the video, Ford shows that some solutions to gridlock are beginning to present themselves, including smart vehicles that can communicate traffic information to one another in real-time, but there is still a lot of work to do.Continue reading Bill Ford is worried about traffic, talks to TED about it

Bill Ford is worried about traffic, talks to TED about it originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



More...