Ford Motor Co. recently announced that it will be joining forces with Waze and their community-based traffic and navigation app, looking to bring their services into Ford’s newest vehicles through the SYNC 3 AppLink.
The announcement, made at CES 2018, means that touch screen and voice commands will now be all that is necessary to control Waze once users have plugged their smartphones into the USB of an appropriate vehicle. The app will pop up on its touchscreen and the sound will pour through the vehicle’s own speakers.
“Our goal is to bring a human-centered approach to technology in the vehicle, making it as easy as possible for people to integrate the tools that matter most to them,” Don Butler, Ford executive director of Connected Vehicle and Services, said. “With the flexibility of our SYNC 3 software and AppLink, customers can easily use Waze to get all the traffic and navigation help they need – on a big screen and without having to fiddle around with their phones while driving.”
Other SYNC 3-enabled Ford vehicles will be able to get either an over-the-air update or USB-based update to enable Waze. The cars will subsequently gain access to HOV route support, optimal driving directions, and traffic updates, and notify others in the community of road updates as they do so.
“With SDL, Waze guidance is presented onto the driver’s in-car screen and new features are made available as soon as they are released,” Jens Baron, product lead for B2B and in-car applications at Waze, said. “With SDL, drivers get the most updated version from Waze – with all the new features and design releases, the same as driving with Waze on your phone.”
Other features of SYNC 3 AppLink will include iHeartRadio and WebEx functionality.