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CES: GM to open the dashboard to developers

At last year's Autoweek Design Forum, father of the iPod and Nest Labs co-founder Tony Fadell suggested that automakers concentrate on designing and building cars, leaving handset makers to handle infotainment. The latest announcements from Ford and GM -- in conjunction with the International CES -- suggest that automakers would rather treat the dashboard space as a handset. Yesterday, Dearborn, Mich., announced the Ford Developer Program, which opens up Sync to outside application development; now General Motors has announced a similar initiative.

Mazda wins 2008 LA Design Challenge

The Mazda Kaan concept has won the fifth annual LA Design Challenge competition, part of the Design Los Angeles automobile designer's conference. The award was presented during the second press day of the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, following a designers' luncheon and keynote speech by Daniel Simon, visionary futurist and author of Cosmic Motors. As we reported last month, nine local Southern California design studios entered the competition to envisage how motor sport vehicles might be in the year 2025, answering the theme ‘Motorsports 2025'.

Ford unveils Mustang 50th anniversary logo

Ford is gearing up for a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Mustang in 2014, and revealed a logo Tuesday to be used on fan merchandise. The anniversary logo uses the traditional galloping pony in silhouette, placed above the words “50 years.” Ford designer Michael Thompson is credited with creating the anniversary logo. The logo will either be white on a black background or black on white, Ford says.