FORD SUVpacking

2024 FORD AUTOCAMPING PROPOSAL

It’s mid-2023. Our family is putting the final touches in place for a forthcoming cross-country traveling DOGventure excursion. Our idea is to pack all that we need into our SUV — hopefully another FORD Utility Vehicle! — to enable us to drive with our two dogs from the East Coast to the West Coast, enjoying the highways, byways, and backroads of our nation.

While we first came up with our version of a similar idea in 2014, the notion behind living, working, and exploring out of the back of a motorized vehicle is hardly new. Henry Ford and his vagabonds gave a name to the concept in 1914, calling their simple getaways AUTOCAMPING.

Our 2024 update into what we’ve come to call SUVpacking will build upon what Henry Ford started in 1914 and then ended in 2024, namely his and the press’s concept of AUTOCAMPING. The idea was for Ford to have his people modify some of their vehicles in ways to make them appealing to people and families who wanted to visit parklands or the great outdoors and essentially live out of their cars. AUTOCAMPING became so successful and generated so much publicity Ford and his group of vagabonds had to stop enjoying their excursions. The times were not right for the overwhelming demands of such media popularity, putting an end to AUTOCAMPING by that name.

But today is different. Many models of contemporary cars are naturally evolving to take advantage of their operational and computerized capabilities. This is particularly true of the various versions of SUVs, or what we like to call FORD Utility Vehicles. SUVs are prime examples of how it is now realistic for people, families — even in the company of their dogs! — to increasingly rely on their everyday motorized vehicles as hubs for living, working, and exploring the roads and outdoors, no matter where they happen to park!

It is this dream that we wrap into our view of the SUVpacking that is already coming our way — a modern upgrade of Ford’s AUTOCAMPING that should be celebrated during the year of its 100th anniversary of being too successful to live on. Our 2023 coast-to-coast excursion will enable us to practice and take photos and videos of our first trip with Yakoo and Nuka, our deafblind and deaf dogs. During this DOGventure, we hope to plan for regular travels all around the nation or the Americas, drawing attention to the ways people and their pets can explore using newer vehicles for traveling expressiveness. We actually believe that future FORD SUVs will be able to be ordered on demand, incorporating whatever devices you want to enable the vehicle to be used for SUVpacking.

By the way: Our dogs, Yakoo and Nuka, are already social media influences. This is because even though they are deafblind or have sensory issues, they are shining examples of canine companions who can readily adapt to being on the move. They do this by learning new ways to communicate with us based on what we call Yakoo’s PAWtactile language … an enhancement of the new PROtactile language that deafblind humans are creating to better connect them with the world around them.

We obviously have ideas as to how a SUVpacking partnership with FORD might work, but in reality, we would simply love to discuss the concept with you. We are hoping that the travels we do from Florida to San Francisco in 2013 can serve as a practice run. We expect to gather photos, videos, and the text of our dogs’ stories similar to what you can see on the other parts of this website, DOGtorYakoo.com. Or those we post regularly on DOGtorYakoo’s other media accounts.

My name is Erick. My partner is Allan. To help you understand more about us and SUVpacking, we’ve added some research and historical links below. They highlight where AUTOCAMPING came from and give you a taste of the new means of communication that we’re developing for Yakoo and his younger deaf little sister Nuka, who are the featured dogs behind our PAWtactile system.

You can respond to us in many ways. This page is not public. It is viewable via the link we sent to you. If you prefer, you can email us via DOGtorYakoo@gmail.com. You can also call us in the old way: 707-319-1626.

Our best, ERICK, YAKOO and NUKA, and ALLAN:

---

BACKGROUND AND SUPPORT RESEARCH LINKS

AUTOCAMPING – Then and Now

What you see above are images of our Ford Escape SUV, which we used as we developed the SUVpacking concept from 2014 until 2019. We also added some pictures of the FORD SUVs you seem to have in the works. We’ve heard that many of your expected editions will be useful in the future. There is already a lot of online chat about the advantages of being able to rely on electric vehicles for climate control and connectivity when one stays in the wild.

Below are historical links. The first summarizes what Henry Ford and the Vagabonds did, beginning in 1914 (100 years before we started using the term) and 1924, when AUTOCAMPING went away because it was too successful for car and media technologies to handle. The links after that are from articles prepared by the San Francisco Chronicle, recapping how “vandwellers” have adapted the idea organically to where vehicle traveling is heading today and into tomorrow. Ford seems well-positioned to take advantage of the 2024 anniversary of popularity too.

THE VAGABONDS – 1914 until 2024

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, PART 1 — #vanlife

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, PART 2, VanDwellers

It is also helpful to realize that there are a number of online sites looking at how electric vehicles and modern vehicle designs are being used and reviewed by consumers. Two examples of this can be seen here: OUTDOORS or here: TOPSPEED . We’ve also added pictures of a local Florida dog park that happens to be sponsored by yet another automotive brand that Ford might want to challenge for the dog audiences!

TRAVELING AND TALKING WITH OUR ANIMALS

As we researched adopting a deafblind pet (Yakoo), we learned a lot about making good dog choices. It was through these preparations that we were reminded about AUTOCAMPING and about how communication techniques for deaf and blind humans are improving thanks to new technologies. American Sign Language has been getting better, turning into a new, modern PROtactile system. Our advances to create a PAWtactile language are building on this progress. It is worth some fun too to point out that 2024 will also be an anniversary of some of the work of Helen Keller and of the early worldwide printing of Dr. Dolittle books that suggest how much better the world would be if we could talk to our animals.

If you would like to see more about PROtactile systems and their relationship to digital assistive technologies, enjoy the story of aj granda and Jelica Nuccio. For a good summary of the PROtactile language, see this piece from Texas. We anticipate visiting locations like this as we SUVpack our welcoming lands!