Ford made an announcement at Cebit in Germany yesterday, when the same announcement could have been made from Geneva in Switzerland at a Motor Show. It concerns a new car (range of cars) to be available in Europe in 2012, these are currently available in the USA.

I took the time to visit a link from Cebit in Germany – in a London hotel - and then a chance to have a video link (via Skype) to one of the presenters after their broadcast.

The technology in the new range of Ford Focus cars will be from Microsoft and perhaps the most interesting feature is that a lot of the technology in the car can be controlled by voice and this is provided by Nuance. So you can add your phone, Blackberry or iPod and play your favourite tunes or call your partner all by voice control, this as well as more mundane car controls such as temperature and navigation.

Perhaps another interesting feature is that a pan Europe 112 emergency number will get assistance to the car after an accident/breakdown using the language of the country you are currently in, another of the bits where Microsoft and Nuance will be working together.