Ford adopting CarPlay and Android Auto

[jmueller065]

One of the most widespread adopters will be Ford, which this year will begin offering both Android Auto and CarPlay in conjunction with the revamping of the automaker’s much-criticized Sync system. By the end of 2016, they will be available on all Fords sold in the United States.

From this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/technology/rivals-google-and-apple-fight-for-the-dashboard.html?smid=go-share

 

[damania]

Android will be much much better. Microsoft sux at everything. What would be even nicer would be 3g/4g service for a monthly fee, so I can stream songs to my car.

 

[EVA]

Nice that Ford will do both Android and Apple - I thought they were mutually exclusive, apparently not. It makes sense that they would do both.

The thing I don't quite understand, Ford made the announcement of dropping Microsoft for the Operating System, and they are picking up a Blackberry owned OS (not Blackberry, but another company that makes the fundamental OS). So how does that play with Android and Apple? Is it just the underlying code that allows everything to work, and the Android and Apple are simply layers on top?

Seems like an integration nightmare to me.

Oh - and we can be pretty confident we won't be able to upgrade current Sync platforms to the new system.

 

[jmueller065]

So how does that play with Android and Apple? Is it just the underlying code that allows everything to work, and the Android and Apple are simply layers on top?

Seems like an integration nightmare to me.

Oh - and we can be pretty confident we won't be able to upgrade current Sync platforms to the new system.

As I understand it Apple's CarPlay works much like a remote terminal (a VNC session or an X-Windows session) into the device. The head unit in the car simply presents a "screen" to the user as instructed by the device and forwards all the "touch clicks" back to the device. Thus it is future proofed as when you get newer phones in the future the display may change simply because the phone is drawing something different on the car's screen.
I suspect that the Android version is similar.
Yes Ford did drop Microsoft and moved to a QNX (Blackberry owned) based system. It is super fast (I've played with it a few times already)--it still has screens and settings for plugins and EVs.
I had initially heard that the new system would be a drop in replacement for Sync II/MFT and that Ford would offer it to anyone who complained enough but I think that was idle speculation on the engineer's part I was talking to (and he wasn't a Ford employee).

 

[michael]

I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with the Sync system, but I haven't yet found a car with a system that seems better to me, and truthfully, most of the others that I have tried seem a lot worse.

Volt and Rav-4 EV in particular are a torture chamber for me. I haven't tried Leaf, but my friends who own them aren't too happy with their displays and interface.

 

[hybridbear]

Yes Ford did drop Microsoft and moved to a QNX (Blackberry owned) based system. It is super fast (I've played with it a few times already)--it still has screens and settings for plugins and EVs.

Are you referring to Sync 3 or something else?

I had initially heard that the new system would be a drop in replacement for Sync II/MFT and that Ford would offer it to anyone who complained enough but I think that was idle speculation on the engineer's part I was talking to (and he wasn't a Ford employee).

That would be wonderful if it were true!!

 

[jmueller065]

Are you referring to Sync 3 or something else?

Yes the QNX/Blackberry solution is what Ford is calling Sync 3.

 

[EVA]

I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with the Sync system, but I haven't yet found a car with a system that seems better to me, and truthfully, most of the others that I have tried seem a lot worse.

Volt and Rav-4 EV in particular are a torture chamber for me. I haven't tried Leaf, but my friends who own them aren't too happy with their displays and interface.

Sit in a Tesla and use that interface. It is the best laid out, most logical thing I have ever used in a car. After using that for around 9 months and 18,000 miles - I have no idea why anybody would even try to invent something different. Every car company should just steal that interface, and stop messing around (yes I know, the huge touchscreen helps - but that isn't the whole answer).

Although, nobody has come up with a better interface than that energy cup and number of miles versus budgeted on the FFE (you don't even want to know what Tesla did with their version).