Paul Mascarenas has been CTO at Ford for over three years now. Compared to the long history of the automobile thats barely a blip, yet these past three years have seen major advancements in the sorts of technology installed and offered inside a modern car. Many manufacturers have added more intelligence to their cars since 2010 than they did in the 10 years previous.
Not Ford. That isnt to say that the company hasnt made huge progress over the past three years, as it surely has, but the company was well ahead of the curve when it introduced Sync in 2007. While other manufacturers have had some catching up to do with their smart
cars, Ford seems to be focusing on filling in the blanks.
At this years International CES the company knocked out a few more, rolling out Sync AppLink capability to 3.4 million cars -- though sadly the service, which allows smartphone apps to talk directly to the car, still isnt compatible with the latest MyFord Touch-equipped vehicles. This update also enhances AppLink functionality on newer cars, allowing smartphone apps to read key data from the car, things like speed and fuel consumption.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
This will, in theory, greatly extend the functionality of these apps and Ford hopes this, plus a coder-focused conference this summer, will woo more app developers to support the companys cars. By extension, theyd be supporting the nascent Smart Device Link API, which the Blue Oval has positioned as an industry standard. (A standard strengthened by Fords
recent acquisition of Livio). However, its far from the only standard out there, and at this years CES a few more were thrown on the pile.
Far and away the most talked about of these fledgling interfaces came from Google. The
Open Auto Alliance (or OAA) is "committed to bringing the
Android platform to cars starting in 2014," and while
exactly what that means remains unclear, its readily apparent that Ford is not among the initial members of this group (which currently includes GM, Audi, Honda, and Hyundai).
From the outside, this certainly looks like a competing option to Fords Smart Device Link, but Mascarenas isnt bothered. "I dont think in any way its frustrating. If anything its good for the industry. It avoids fragmentation and takes complexity out of things. Just like were promoting AppLink as an industry standard it takes complexity out for the developers...Were very happy with what were doing, with our work with the Livio guys, but were open to work with others as well."
GM signing on to the OAA means that one company offers at least three separate app platforms, a situation that must give its own developers headaches, never mind those on the outside.
The areas of smartphone connectivity and smart cars are, you see, still so rough that
any attempt at standardization actually managing to bring multiple manufacturers together is a step forward. Thats despite some of these steps creating some interesting internal conflict. General Motors, for example, already relies on Livios API for its Spark and just launched its own Connected by OnStar initiative for HTML5-based in-car apps. GM signing on to the OAA means that one company offers at least three separate app platforms, a situation that must give its own developers headaches, never mind those on the outside.
