Comments on: Ford touts its leadership in in-car connectivity

During a CES keynote address, Alan Mulally, the CEO of the automotive giant, talked up his company's initiatives in getting Internet-based applications into millions of its cars.

[Nocturnex]

let me be the first to say this could be either really useful or really bad, depending on how well its done, also if they keep it out of the drivers way, i drive a 1994 toyota supra, and have enough trouble avoiding other drivers stupid habits(no blinkers, illegal u turns, lane switching out of nowhere, people trying to race me when im just going to work and have no interest in hitting the gas, and not to mention extremely slow drivers, the happy hypermilers that go 45 on the highway and make traffic jams).

[celticbrewer]

I share those concerns. Like "That would mean, apparently, being able to run applications like Pandora, via the iPhone, by using control buttons on the car's steering wheel." That's just what we need, people screwing with applications while driving. And you thought texting while driving was bad.

[raptor310]

The first thing the computerised fuel effiency coach should tell you is to sell him (anthropromorphised car A.I. ?) and buy a pure electric vehicle for infinite fuel efficiency, then it might be able to recommend some (Ford?) E.V. dealers nearby for a same day trade in!

[ScottMonty]

Hi Daniel - thanks for the Ford coverage. FYI, Ford did not receive any loan money from the federal government. We're in a different position than Chrysler or GM. Our official statement on the situation can be found here: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29604

We're pretty excited about the developments in our technology. As we collaborate with more partners and open-source some development and offer APIs, it's going to be a new era in connectivity in automobiles.

Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company

[ppgreat]

I would be interested to hear from anyone outside of Ford who has actually used the Sync technology in their vehicle as to how well it works.

[cheeseboy]

I used Sync in a rental Mercury Sable and it worked OK. Just about how you would expect a Microsoft revision 1.0 product to work. I am impressed that Ford has the foresight to include a USB port in most of its vehicles. I had to install an aftermarket radio to get similar functionality in my car.

[Icfleet]

This is short of not having a great Idea at all We have been streaming live video and sending onboard OBD2 Data off any obd 2 car for over 2 years now also we have included a full on maping system and allow the end user to send his or her gps right on up to the web off the car we can also effect change to the vehicals ECU via our software interface AKA try and update a computer brain thats in texas while I am in Seattle BOB The Builder YES WE CAN !!! Anyways this is not that impressive maybe to a lay person that has no clue but FORD is going to need to do better OH yeh we have onstar for the average man ...

[stockyjoe]

How about becoming a leader in reliability, build and design instead of Gimmicks. That has always been a fault of American cars since the 70's. Too many gimmicks.