Ford seeks to be leader in auto-tech innovation

Rodney Phillips, SYNC engineering manager for Ford Asia Pacific, said this weekend at “Nforum No 9: The Future of Automotive Technology” in Bangkok that to do that the company needed to collaborate more closely than ever with leading providers of mobile technology. 

“In all of Ford’s vehicles, we strive to be best in class in the areas customers care about most – quality, green, safe and smart. Today, we’re focusing on ‘smart’, and for good reason – technology is one of the leading purchase motivators for the new customers we’re seeing in our dealerships,” Phillips said.

SYNC was Ford’s first in-car technology, allowing drivers the convenience and flexibility of bringing their own digital media players and Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones into their vehicles and operating them using buttons on the steering wheel or, more important, through simple, intuitive voice commands. Globally, it forecasts that SYNC will be fitted in 14 million vehicles by 2015.

“We knew customers would want to use their smart-phone apps in the car, whether it would be music and news apps, navigation apps or search tools for restaurants or fuel prices,” Phillips said.

The next step in SYNC connectivity strategy is AppLink, developed in anticipation of the rapidly expanding app economy.

AppLink allows smart-phone apps to interface with in-vehicle controls and audio, including voice recognition, displays, buttons and the microphone. That means drivers can keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road while giving them full access to SYNC-compatible applications from their personal devices.

Recently, Ford announced AppLink 2.0, which will allow greater communication between smart-phone apps and AppLink-equipped vehicles. 

“We’ve already rolled out AppLink to more than a million cars in North America, with plans to add a million more by year-end and introduce AppLink in markets around the world, including here in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.

Worldwide, by 2015 Ford projects that there will be more than 7 million vehicles on the road equipped with SYNC AppLink. That presents a huge opportunity for software developers.

“We want to enable anyone, anywhere who has a great idea for the in-car experience, to create, test and possibly deploy their app in Ford vehicles.” 

The auto-maker has extended its Ford Developer Programme to include markets in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. 

Developers who register at developer.ford.com can download the AppLink software-development kit, which contains libraries and documentation for the interfaces enabling communication between apps and the vehicle. 

 Nforum No 9 was held by The Nation in cooperation with Ford Sales and Service (Thailand) at the Sukosol Hotel.