Behind-the-Screens Look at the New Lincoln Digital Experience

I’ve always been someone who wants to be at the “tip of the spear” in tech – working on whatever’s new and cutting edge. 

 That’s what I find so exciting about being at Ford Motor Company today and what brought me here. We don’t want to be just a leader in vehicles, we want to lead in software development.  

 One of the projects I’m proudest of just rolled out – the panoramic display of the Lincoln Digital Experience that is now available in the all-new 2024 Lincoln Nautilus. It stretches across the top of the dashboard, and is customizable. We know customers like large screens, although our research indicated how important it is to provide the right amount of information in the right place and in the right way. Big should not result in complexity. 

 I think back to when this all started, the vehicle program leaders told me we would be working on a vehicle that would be designed to offer an incredible digital experience. But, they had not defined what the idea was going to look like yet, so they asked me to assemble a team of people from across the company to design that digital experience – what you see in the vehicle today is a testament to them. 

 When we started on the Nautilus program, we heard from customers that they wanted their digital lives to integrate with their vehicles. We needed to test what kind of digital experiences we could offer, but the size display that we thought would really enhance our vehicles – roughly 48” diagonally and 6” tall – didn’t exist. So our team bought a curved flat screen TV and built a box around it so that only the top 6” was exposed – our panoramic prototype. We used that to visualize what the experience could be and share it with customers in clinics. In 120 days (about 4 months), our team took this “TV in a box” prototype and developed it into that gorgeous panoramic display that got integrated into the Nautilus vehicle program and is now available for customers to enjoy.  

 But it’s more than just a display. Our team likes to think of it as a canvas, or a window. We defined zones around the level of importance of information that is displayed across the panoramic display making it easy to find what you need with a quick glance. 

 We decided to show driving information and navigation on the left side of the display, plus on the right side, the driver can choose from a selection of widgets including real time weather, music or podcast information, fuel economy status, tire pressure, trip data or, if preferred, none at all. It’s designed to be more like a portal that lets you access applications that will let the vehicle change with you over time, as you grow and change – just like a smartphone can update with whatever you need. My team and I have been able to see this through from the ground up, and it’s why I love coming to work - the possibilities are endless.  

I like to tell people, if you like the new Lincoln Digital Experience today, you’re going to love it even more the longer you own it, because what you’re seeing today is just the beginning of the amazing experiences we’re creating here at Lincoln and Ford. 

Thank you to Lee Helpingstine, Ryan Keberly, Brian Caiazza Mark Miller Brett Stottlemyer Chitra Varanasi Michael Brasser Clay Carpenter Rick Englert Husein Dakroub Christian Dodd Cameron Hirbodi Nicolas Thetard Michael Boyagian Allen Sun Keerthana Thangaraju Trevor Wiley Blake Smith Rogerio Lemos Michael Hope Jeff Ostrowski Joey Oravec plus the many others who made this possible!