September 22, 2007
Ford in ‘Sync’ with wired world
No longer the domain of expensive cars, new technology is working its way into the vehicles everyone could soon be driving -- transforming vehicles into "offices on wheels."
Nowhere was that innovation more evident than at the 2007 North American International Auto Show, where automakers yesterday unveiled such advances as the ability to receive text messages through the speakers of a car, as well as voice-activated access to MP3s.
Partnering with Microsoft, Ford announced that starting this fall, it is making available on many of its models a factory-installed "Sync" system, a voice-activated in-car communications and entertainment system for cellphones, digital music players such as the iPod, and other media-storage devices.
Sync will give drivers the ability to make hands-free calls, receive and reply to messages, use advanced calling features such as caller ID, select their favourite music -- by genre, album, artist or song title -- simply by saying it out loud, or by using the vehicle's steering wheel or radio controls.
Names and numbers in a cellphone's address book can be wirelessly transferred to the vehicle. Ringtones can be selected. Incoming messages will play over the car's speakers and the system will even recognize commonly used text-messaging expressions as LOL, cyberspeak for "laughing out loud."
... Sync will be available in 12 Ford models beginning this year, starting with the new Focus, unveiled yesterday at the show, now in its 100th year."
[via Driving.ca]
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