Ford May Soon Offer Crack-Resistant Windshields

You find them on the latest smartphones, but not on cars just yet. But that’s all about to change because Ford will soon be offering Gorilla Glass as an option to more of its vehicles soon.

Right now, it’s available as standard equipment on the Ford GT supercar, but thanks to a partnership with Gorilla Glass maker Corning and auto supplier Hyperformance Glass Products, it’ll soon be offered as a more durable, lightweight option for the Ford F-150.

The windshield replaces the inner ply in a traditional windshield with chemically-tempered Gorilla Glass. It’s thinner, more flexible, and is two and a half times stronger at resisting impacts at 30 percent the weight.

Hyperformance choose the F-150 specifically not just because it’s the best-selling vehicle in the US, but because it’s often used as a work truck at construction sites and with that, it’s often subjected to rocks and other debris that may otherwise damage a windshield.

As for the price? It’s not going to be cheap. The windshield sets you back USD 899.95 (~ P 46,702), but it does come with a two-year breakage warranty. Moving forward, Hyperformance says they’re in the middle of developing more vehicle applications on current and future Ford models, including the Mustang.

Ford Wants to Come Up with a Pickup Truck Emoji

With billions of emoji sent daily and nearly every mode of transportation including cars, scooters, boats, spaceships, and ski lifts among the 3,000 approved icons available to emoji users, truck fans noticed a glaring omission: There is no pickup truck. Ford decided it was time to do something about this with the debut of the pickup truck emoji.

“When customers started demanding a truck emoji, our drive for continuous innovation meant we knew we had to help make it happen,” said Todd Eckert, Ford truck group marketing manager. “Given F-Series’ status as America’s best-selling truck for 42 consecutive years, there’s no one better than Ford to help bring an all-new pickup truck emoji to hard-working texters around the globe.”

In 2018, Ford submitted a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, the organization that reviews and approves proposals for new emoji, to add a truck to emoji keyboards everywhere. Now, the pickup truck emoji has been short-listed as a candidate for inclusion in a future version of Unicode.

The concept emoji’s capable styling has been tuned to meet current trends. “Our team spent a lot of time digging through message boards, texting influencers and watching social media feeds to really understand our customers’ needs,” said Eric Grenier, Ford social media manager. “People want a truck emoji that’s fresh, stylish, carries their ideas, and ‘tows’ the line on what a truck means. The end result is a modern icon that should give all truck fans a smiley face emoji.”

If the pickup truck emoji is approved in early 2020, the design will be customized for all mobile platforms to meet the needs of customers, from skilled tradespeople to active families and emoji lovers alike.