Ford was one of the first car manufacturers to announce its intentions to add support for Apple’s CarPlay to its in-dash systems. Questions concerning how Ford plans to integrate Apple’s solution, however, have remained since the initial announcement. In an interview with Re/code today, Ford CEO Mark Fields clarified some of the details regarding the company’s plans to offer CarPlay (and Android Auto) in its vehicles.
Fields first commented that Ford doesn’t want to end up as the handset business, meaning that the company doesn’t want to simply offer hardware with other operating systems. Ford has its own SYNC in-car solution and it will continue to offer it in all its vehicles. Fields feels that offering hardware without custom-built software is a recipe for being unprofitable.
Furthermore, Ford CTO Raj Nair noted that the company’s reasoning for offering CarPlay, Android Auto, and SYNC is to ensure that buyers have a choice. “We want to make sure you are not pushed into a decision on a $40,000 car based on your $200 smartphone,” the executive said. Nair also noted that the company’s SYNC system is a draw for buyers.
Regarding how Ford will manage offering three in-dash systems, Nair explained that SYNC will work very closely with Android Auto and CarPlay. For instance, if a user wants to use Apple Maps but listen to Sirius Radio through SYNC, their car will support that.
Finally, CEO Mark Fields noted that in-car cellular connectivity is an area of interest for the company. Fields expects the feature to be available in more cars gradually. In-car cellular connectivity will of course be instrumental in improving the experience of CarPlay.
CarPlay support will come to Ford vehicles alongside SYNC 3 later this year and will ship in new car models beginning at the end of this year. Read our review of CarPlay here.
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Ford’s use of Microsoft SYNC was a primary reason why I eliminated Lincoln from my list of new car options in 2011. So, I’m a bit dubious that their effort to software link all three options into their infotainment system will succeed.
Wow…Car Play would be a god-send. As a Ford Focus owner who is nearing the end of a 3 year lease, I told my Ford rep that unless significant improvement was made to the Sync system by the time my lease was up in Jan 2016, Ford would no longer get my business. The Microsoft Sync system is nothing short of an abomination.
Agreed.
What does the system NOT do for you? The original version of MFT Touch had issues, however those issues have been resolved through updates.
My system allows me to make and receive calls, listen to audio through bluetooth. The MFT screen works, I can change channels, climate use nav without issue.
SYNC has been working in my car without any hick ups.I do not understand why people complain and call it finicky. Having said this I do appreciate Ford’s approach of having a choice. There are too many of us with different preferences.
As someone who travels a lot and uses numerous rental cars I can tell you SYNC is by far the best system out there for paired iPhones.
I’m not sure what your issues are but for making calls, using maps and listening to music SYNC is the only one that routinely works with out fussing with my phone or the radio. Mercedes is a distant second. All of the other systems are complete junk. 90% of the other systems will stop playing music though the radio the second you use maps and the other 10% won’t let maps voice come over the speakers if music if it is playing.
I use a 4G iPod Touch or my iPhone 6 Plus with Sync in my Ford Focus. At times, Sync will either fail to recognize the iPod or iPhone, go into an endless reindex after I update a device via iTunes, tell me auto-play is not available for a device, or need to recreate the speech commands. Usually, I need to pull the fuses to reset these error conditions. The dealer is at a loss why Sync behaves this way. From their side, they say Sync has the latest firmware installed. Even a reinstall of the firmware
Even a reinstall of the firmware by the dealer proved fruitless (no Apple pun ;) )
This clear and concise article answered all of my outstanding questions about exactly how this will work.