Ford has received a large amount of prizes for the 2011 Edison Best New Product Awards in New York. Several of the manufacturer’s designs including MyFord Touch and MyKey systems were given golden gongs.

Ford engineers have taken home a number of prizes from this year’s Edison Best New Product Awards in New York City.  The car company received golden gongs for MyFord Touch and MyKey systems as well as the design for rear inflatable seat belts.  The SYNC AppLink received a Silver award.

The group vice president for Ford Global Product Development, Derrick Kuzak, said “We are pleased that our latest consumer technologies have been recognised as Edison Award winners.”

MyFord Touch uses voice commands to control items in the car such as navigation, climate control, audio and phone systems.

The MyKey system gives parents piece of mind when their children head out onto the roads as there can be some control over the vehicle speed and audio volume levels. It can even mute the car audio system if those in the front seat don’t buckle their seatbelts.

The rear inflatable seatbelts spread the impact of a collision across a wider area of the chest to prevent a large amount of pressure and give greater control to head and neck motion.

Approximately 2000 members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group judged the nominees on marketplace success, marketplace innovation, market structure innovation, technological innovation, design innovation and societal impact.