Ford Announces Sync 3 system

Article:
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2014/12/11/ford-sync-infotainment-system/20244923/

Ford today introduced Sync 3, the latest generation of its infotainment system that will debut on 2016 Ford and Lincoln models next year in a bid to win over critics who found past versions hard to use.

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Having briefly played with the new system: It is much faster and much more "smartphone" like (for instance to pan the map you simply drag your finger across, zooming is done via pinching, etc.) and much much more responsive. Rest assured there is also a section to pull up charge stations and a power display much like we have (in case you were concerned Ford was going to drop support for plug ins).

Ooh built in WiFi to download updates over the internet from your home connection..nice! And Siri access too.

As far as the FFE my guess would be that the 2016 FFE would get Sync 3 at the earliest (since they are already building the 2015 Focus/FFE).

This is a step in the right direction. Sure with Sync 3 was available for my 2012!

Sync 3 most likely will require a hardware up grade for older Ford products. Most of speed increase is due to a faster processer. More complex software requires more memory. So these may limit the upgrade ability of older Sync systems.

Nice. Good to see they are serious about the development. So happy to see the end of the quadrant screen. It looks great. Also great to see them dropping Microsoft. That was not a happy marriage. Mobile devices is a much better model than a PC OS.

Here's the official Ford announcement.

https://media.ford.com/content/ford...w--innovative-ways-for-people-to-connect.html

Ford needed to push Microsoft into the background. To get the fullest functionality of MFT you had to have a Windows phone. Which is like the 15th most popular phone on the market. Right behind bag phones and paper cups on a string. The arrangement was great for Microsoft but not not so good for Ford. Ford got to put the Microsoft logo in the cars. Which seemed like a great idea to the old men in Dearborn. But young people were not impressed. And then they got pissed off when some of the functionality of their iPhones, the most popular phone on the market, wouldn't work.

Of course, leave it to the old men in Dearborn to step up from the Microsoft name that was popular in the 90's to the Blackberry name which had its heyday in the 00's.

signed,
unimpressed

Steve0512 said:

To get the fullest functionality of MFT you had to have a Windows phone.

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Not entirely true: The people working on MFT were targeting the iPhone during development..not a Windows phone.

Steve0512 said:

Of course, leave it to the old men in Dearborn to step up from the Microsoft name that was popular in the 90's to the Blackberry name which had its heyday in the 00's.

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The underlying OS the new system is running on is QNX which wasn't created by Blackberry. They just purchased it (and Ford's move to QNX may have started before Blackberry purchased QNX).

QNX is one of the leading OS's used in embedded devices and other OEM's radio head units. Makes perfect sense to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNX

I had hoped for a fast android based system.
Imagine if your car could just download and run all the android apps!

jeffand said:

Sync 3 most likely will require a hardware up grade for older Ford products. Most of speed increase is due to a faster processer. More complex software requires more memory. So these may limit the upgrade ability of older Sync systems.

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Ford has said that older units will not be compatible. The article on The Car Connection had a quote from a Ford employee saying that the only way to upgrade an existing car is to "buy a new one". The reason given was the processor change.

Here is a video about it Ford posted (in which you get some brief glimpses of it working):
http://youtu.be/lhjZf0i6qaU
Pay attention to when he is talking about apps. One of the "apps" on the screen is "Electric Vehicle"

A short mention in CNet Update:
http://www.cnet.com/videos/ford-sync-3-dumps-microsoft-for-blackberry/

Yeah, even though it might not really be blackberry, that's the headline journalists are picking up.

hybridbear said:

jeffand said:

Sync 3 most likely will require a hardware up grade for older Ford products. Most of speed increase is due to a faster processer. More complex software requires more memory. So these may limit the upgrade ability of older Sync systems.

Click to expand...

Ford has said that older units will not be compatible. The article on The Car Connection had a quote from a Ford employee saying that the only way to upgrade an existing car is to "buy a new one". The reason given was the processor change.

Click to expand...

The processor change is part of the reason. The other change is moving from resistive to capacitive screens.

I'm mostly unimpressed by the Sync 3 demos that I watched. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are more interesting solutions.

I know the current Sync system gets a lot of criticism, but I find it very easy to use. I also use the corresponding systems in a Rav 4-EV and a Volt, and I still think the Ford is the best of the three.

It certainly could run quicker, and there are a few changes I would make, but on balance I find it intuitive and very acceptable.