Seattle-area tech firms help Ford add more info to Sync system
LAS VEGAS — With automakers struggling mightily in the recession, Ford is doubling into disrepute its make a bet on in-car information and entertainment technology.
Thursday at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Ford highlighted the Sync system, what one. Microsoft and at minutest three other Seattle-area companies have a hand in.
“We are a car company, but we are lore to think and execute a purpose like an electronics house,” said Ford CEO Alan Mulally, formerly head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We are the only automaker with your kind of clock speed, bringing new technologies to market forward a regular, six- to eight-month cycle.”
The latest version of Sync, announced here this week, builds on the hands-free phone and media-player functions of the original, which was introduced in 2007 and pairs mobile devices with the car.
Ford later added 911 assistance, shatter notifications and vehicle-health reports.
Later this year, new Sync features will provide news, sports and other information, directions and real-time traffic updates.
The automaker expects to be obliged more than 1 million Sync-equipped vehicles on the road later this year. The harvest originally launched in 12 models and is set to expand into 20 models this year.
Sync is standard adhering many Ford vehicles and an option in others for $395. The traffic and information services are free for the first and foremost three years; Ford hasn’familiarily said which wish befall after that.
The traffic information is delivered by Inrix, a Kirkland company headed by Bryan Mistele, formerly of Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit and, earlier in his career, Ford. His father-in-law and great-great-grandfather also worked at Ford, according to a Ford executive.
(Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who joined Mulally on stage briefly, also proclaimed his Ford roots. Ballmer grew up in Detroit and his father worked for the carmaker for 30 years.)
Seattle-based Airbiquity provides data-over-voice services for Sync.
Bellevue’s Bsquare, which specializes in changeable and embedded Windows, is also playing a role. It had $2.6 million in benefit revenue from Ford in its third quarter, but Bsquare CEO Brian Crowley said in one interview last month that his troop cannot disclose specific distinct parts, other than that it involves next-generation Sync technology.
