Mikey Campbell
Ford CEO Mark Fields on Thursday offered a few more details about plans to integrate Apple's CarPlay into future vehicles, saying that while support is coming, Ford's SYNC infotainment system will be the star of the show.
In an interview at Ford's Palo Alto research center on Thursday, Fields told Re/code his company will support both CarPlay and Google's Android Auto in upcoming SYNC iterations, but only as secondary interfaces to the primary QNX-based system.
Although Ford is already a confirmed CarPlay partner, the automaker has remained mum on how it plans to integrate Apple's in-car platform in future vehicles. After dropping Microsoft and developing a next-generation SYNC product based on BlackBerry's QNX, it stands to reason that Ford is reluctant to give up the dashboard wholesale.
According to CTO Raj Nair, who was also on hand to answer questions, Ford is also taking consumer choice into consideration with its multi-pronged solution.
"We want to make sure you are not pushed into a decision on a $40,000 car based on your $200 smartphone," Nair said.
With a mature infotainment system, Ford is in a good position to cherry pick the best features from CarPlay and Android Auto. For example, Nair said SYNC will allow customers to use Google Maps while streaming music from Sirius satellite radio, a go-to entertainment option offered to North American car buyers.
While protective of its seat at the table, Ford is also experimenting with burgeoning mobile technology. Nair showed off an Apple Watch app to link with and monitor the status of various Ford hybrid and electric vehicles. It took the company's research team only one week to build the app.
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34 Comments
I have delayed my car choice with Ford Lincoln partly waiting for Apple Car and dumping that awful Sync. If this is where Ford is headed in 2016 then it's time to look at anothe car company. You would think the miserable performance and consumer dislike for sync would drive change sooner, but .....
[quote name="gprovida" url="/t/186075/ford-details-carplay-integration-with-sync-infotainment-system#post_2718451"]I have delayed my car choice with Ford Lincoln partly waiting for Apple Car and dumping that awful Sync. If this is where Ford is headed in 2016 then it's time to look at anothe car company. You would think the miserable performance and consumer dislike for sync would drive change sooner, but .....[/quote] It's not Sync people hate, its MyFordTouch. Don't confuse the two systems. MFT is gone.
Aside from continuing sync ick the idea that you are going to mix and match like describe is going to be a nightmare of bugs, conflicts, and crashes as apps are updated. Why not a simple menu to boot into MS Sync, Android, or Car Play. All they are doing is confusing consumers and risking very messy stability and performance. Ford is simply not competent to do the triage and maintenance. Heck their current electronic diagnostics are of limited value in repairs. I can testify to the utter inability to predict failure and when failure happens it's usually replace a part and if that doesn't work try another.
As usual, Ford is confused about what consumers want. First off, what are they smoking when talking about Carplay and a $200 phone is the same context. New iPhones (which are required with Carplay) are not $200 folks. And more importantly, a person's phone is more that just a thing with a cash value. People are VERY attached to their phones. Ford, you are mistaken when you attempt to minimize the importance of a phone to an individual. I have two Ford's in my family. Both have Sync. Absolutely the worst feature on the car. Well, maybe the transmission is worse. Anyway, when we bought one of the cars, the dealer was telling us what a great car it was, but then went on to apologize in advance for the Sync system. Telling us, that is the single biggest problem/mistake Ford has with their cars. So Ford, Sync is NOT the star of the show. Get that through your heads.
I am not at all interested in a Ford. But what's being reported in this instance -- carmakers balking on CarPlay except as an addendum or a subsidiary product to their own utterly crappy interfaces -- seems to be pretty much what's been achieved so far.
Somewhat disappointing.