New Microsoft Sync, Ford Tech to Educate Hybrid Drivers
An updated version of Microsoft Sync will show up in the 2010 Fords and will include:
- traffic info
- directions, and
- voice navigated news.
The guys over at Engadget, who haven’t been big fans of Sync, did a hands on review earlier this month complete with video shot inside a Ford Escape.
It’s short and sweet, but worth the 30 or so seconds of your life to “hear” Sync’s voice and eyeball the simplicity of the display. I always get a little worried that these in-dash displays will draw people’s eyes away from the road, but I have to admit Sync is low key and to the point. (TechNewsWorld goes a little more in-depth in their report here.)
I’m frankly more intrigued by the SmartGauge with EcoGuide technology that will appear in the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids beginning this spring. The system will provide a new instrument cluster that churns out real time data in order to teach drivers how to get the maximum fuel efficiency out of their hybrids. Now that’s a concept long overdue and is part of what the company is calling its “Human Machine Interface” strategy. (Also detailed in the TechNewsWorld report.)
While Ford continues to operate without the stigma of a government loan and the supervision that comes with it, the company has an opportunity to get outside the doggone box and offer some innovations that will draw customers back and, hopefully, qualify the company for any new loan programs coming out of the Obama administration geared toward environmentally friendly, fuel efficient technology. I hope we see more SmartGauge-like efforts coming out of the House of Henry because that is, in my opinion, the direction the carmakers need to be moving — out of the petroleum mindset and into the future.