Screen from Ford’s SYNC 4 infotainment system rolling out in 2020.
There was a time consumers found Ford Motor Company’s SYNC connectivity and entertainment system so difficult to use, it slammed the automaker near the bottom of the influential annual J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.
Ford learned from those mistakes and corrected most of them to where the current version, SYNC 3, while still not an industry leader, is at least competitive.
That’s a pretty beige classification and one Ford is determined to erase with the introduction of SYNC 4 in selected vehicles coming to market next year.
During a media deep dive of the new system at Ford’s Connectivity campus in Allen Park, Mich., engineers and strategists laid out an almost wholesale redesign for SYNC that should instantly propel the system into a much stronger competitive position.
The secret sauce is what Todd Hoevner, director of advanced product creation and technical strategy called “human centered design.” In other words, a system that interacts more intuitively with drivers and passengers. It starts with larger, more thoughtfully laid out screens—12-inch and 15.5-inch screens versions, making it possible to access several functions simultaneously via multiple windows Ford calls cards, appearing on the screen.
Screen from Ford’s new SYNC 4 infotainment system showing multiple task windows or “cards” can be … [+]
One of those windows could display the included digital version of the vehicle owner’s manual. There will still be a hard copy living in the glove box in case of power or connectivity loss, but it won’t be quite as extensive as previous versions.
Perhaps the biggest upgrades are the ability to finally connect smartphones using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto without the use of a USB cable, and cloud connectivity becoming standard on all vehicles equipped with SYNC 4.
Connecting with the cloud offers features such as real time navigation and traffic updates as well as improved voice recognition allowing for more naturally-spoken commands, rather than pre-set phrases.
In addition to the SYNC 4 upgrade, Ford also announced it will begin equipping most redesigned vehicles next year with the technology to process over the air (OTA) updates, relieving owners of the burden of taking the vehicle in to be serviced.
“We will be the first automaker to offer seamless virtually invisible updates in any vehicle,” said John Vangelov, Embedded Modem Features Manager at Ford. “Our updates will focus on quality, capability and convenience upgrades.”
Vangelov said Ford expects to deliver the first updates six months after the first vehicles equipped with OTA are launched next year.
All these changes came after extensive consumer research, including dreaming up scenarios such as a family ski trip in an electric vehicle making weather and road conditions information paramount, and a “date night” where the couple could use the system for restaurant or entertainment recommendations in answer to the open-ended question “what do you want to do?”
After its shaky start in 2007, SYNC has steadily improved, but not amazed. Now Ford thinks this latest version is indeed, amazing, but only after customers get their heads around the changes and hands on it, will the automaker know if SYNC 4 succeeded.
