Autoblog

Ford's SYNC system is winning friends left and right, with CNET giving it the nod as Coolest New Car Tech and The Detroit News calling it "the best $395 option of 2007". Sales of the Ford Focus, in which the system debuted, are up 22.5% this year, despite the car's iffy redesign. According to Ford, consumers are choosing to add SYNC to their cars two to one over those who skip it, and Microsoft, which supplies the software to run SYNC, has noticed this popularity. The software giant from Redmond has pretty big plans for its Automotive Business Unit beyond supporting Ford's SYNC system, and hopes to give its software system "daily relevance" within five years by networking infotainment systems with each other. A local search function, for instance, could offer multiple possible routes based on up-to-the-minute information gathered from the network.

All of these upgrades need to be paid for somehow, and Martin Thall, the General Manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit, has suggested that they may integrate advertisements into the infotainment system as opposed to charging subscription fees like General Motors does with its OnStar service. After all, you hear ads on your radio and pass by billboards every time you get in your car, right? Would serving up advertisements or coupons to Starbucks while you're driving be a distraction, though? They better think this through carefully.

[Source: CNET]

The mousetrap and mouse are locked in a constant battle for supremacy. The same is true with laws prohibiting texting while driving and the drivers who simply must text behind the wheel. Enter the capitalists: Microsoft and Nuance. Nuance makes voice recognition software and, combined with the Microsoft Sync system available in many Ford models, the driver would be able to dictate a text message to the car, and perhaps eventually do the same with e-mail.

A Nuance spokeswoman said "We are aiming for natural communication between car and driver, which will have benefits for concentration and safety." The way things are going, there are simply so many more things you can do in a car that we wonder how the increased ability to multitask, even if by voice, will ultimately aid concentration on actual driving. But we'll wait to see how it all shakes out before issuing judgment...

[Source: Auto Express]

Way back in January at CES, we got a personal demonstration of Ford's SYNC from the Microsoft Auto program manager in Vegas, and later, another demonstration from Ford in Detroit. Except for being slow to use and not all that useful, SYNC wasn't terribly complicated.

But FoMoCo isn't taking any chances and wants to ensure that the high-tech merging of their cars and your gadgets won't go over the heads of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury buyers. The carmaker is offering all its dealers extra training on the use of SYNC before the system goes on sale this fall.

Personally, we wonder if Ford is training its dealers how to sell the system more so than how to use it. As we watched the demonstration at CES we were never wowed or shown anything we hadn't seen before. It's good Ford is upping its in-car technology, but we aren't inclined to think that SYNC will be what drives buyers into Ford dealerships. Then again maybe training could help. At my last visit to a Ford dealership, it took the salesman 15 minutes to figure out how to work the Edge's power-folding rear seat.

Click through to the jump to see a video of our Ford demo.

[Source: Automotive News, subscription required]

Ford is touting SYNC's popularity at CES, where attendees voted to give the technology the CNET People's Voice Award, while Popular Mechanics magazine gave SYNC their Editor's Choice award.

While at CES we got a personal demonstration of the technology from Scott Porter, lead program manager for Microsoft Auto. The system did everything it is advertised to do, from taking voice commands, to integrating Bluetooth phones with the car to reading text messages received on your mobile phone. The most impressive thing it did was work just as well with Apple's iPod as it did with Microsoft's Zune. None of those tricks are anything different from what dozens of other electronics and even automotive companies are currently offering. One difference is the lack of GPS on SYNC. Could the Microsoft and Ford PR campaign pushing SYNC be the biggest reason for the People's Voice award? Then again, maybe we just don't "get" being able to have " :) " read out loud to us by a feminine digital voice as "smiley face," or the usefulness of taking 30 seconds or more to interrupt the music to ask SYNC what song is currently playing. We're looking forward to reading Popular Mechanics reasons for liking SYNC. Perhaps they saw something we didn't.

For the full Ford press release, click through to the jump.