Unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones” as they’re commonly referred to, are becoming increasingly commonplace both as recreational toys and serious commercial tools. Amazon wants to begin delivering small packages to customers via drone within a few years, and the FAA now requires all drones over 55 grams to be registered with them. But the market use for drones goes well beyond just delivering packages.

Ford has joined with DJI, one of the foremost commercial drone companies in the world, to offer a $100,000 contest seeking drone-to-vehicle software that can use drones to survey disaster areas from the air. The program must work with Ford’s SYNC Applink or OpenXC, with the goal of allowing United Nations first responders to quickly map emergency zones from the cab of a Ford F-150, though the implications for the technology go well beyond disaster zone mapping.

“At Ford, we are driving innovation in every part of our business to help make people’s lives better,” said Ken Washington, Ford vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering. “Working with DJI and the United Nations, there is an opportunity to make a big difference with vehicles and drones working together for a common good.”

Developers are tasked with using the bed of the F-150 as a launchpad for the mobile drone platform, with ground and airborne vehicles in constant communication. One can imagine a scenario where a drone launches and then follows a pre-determined flight path to map the area, with information streamed to the SYNC 3 infotainment system. After the drone has launched, the driver can continue on to the next area, and the drone will automatically catch up.

That’s very cool, and definitely handy in an emergency…but imagine another use for this technology, like say, automatically following your Mustang as you bomb down the highway or race track. It’d make a lot of Mustang YouTube videos way more interesting, and the technology could be right around the corner.