Play Michael Bolton...

You might have seen the Ford Sync commercial where the guy and his buddy are talking about the voice activated features of his new Ford Focus Sync system, when his buddy says "play Michael Bolton" and a Micheal Bolton song goes on, at which point the guy quickly says "play Korn" and a Korn song comes on.

I got my first chance to check out the Sync system at the Microsoft Auto booth at CES.  One of the software programmers from Microsoft ran me through the system and gave me the skinny. My demo vehicle was the Mercury MKX, and on a side note I have to mention I'm pretty impressed with the quality and design of today's Fords both inside and out. I walked away impressed with Sync, and also wondering when the aftermarket guys (Kenwood, Alpine, Clarion, Sony, etc.) would be licensing the technology. 

Lots more info and some pics after the jump.

The system is installed at the factory, and is available for pretty much every Ford vehicle out there starting this year. While the Focus system is a little less sophisticated (using the three line display in the radio), they all are pretty much the same as far as what the voice recognition system and other functionality. In the past, voice activation was limited to a few voice commands (track up, track down, volume up, volume down, mute, etc.), the Sync system will let you pick pretty much any song you want on your iPod or Zune by name. The Demo car had Depeche Mode's "Violator" loaded up, and you could jump to another other album, song, artist, category, etc.

The Bluetooth interface is pretty sophisticated as well, and works pretty flawlessly. When interfacing with you phone, caller ID, call history, and phonebook info displays prominently on the radio’s display. Sync even has the text-addicts covered with a relatively new technology for Bluetooth and hands-free systems: audible text messaging. The system will read back text messages for you, and Sync can respond using any of 15 preset customized text responses. The system will even recognize and play your specific ring tones, including custom phonebook ring tones.

The system adds $395 to the price of the car, which in the grand scheme of things is pretty damn cheap.  Unless the aftermarket guys start developing similar voice activated technology soon, these systems could really give them  a run for their money.

Also in the booth was a Fiat Cinquecento (500 in Italian) that also features some of the same technology in a removable dash mounted display. 

Comments

[Paul C.]

Man i LOVE that Alpha. My brother-in-law's mother-in-law has one of those lincolns and it is really sweet. I may have to stop by his father-in-law's ford dealership and check out this Sync! Wonder if they will lend it to Mazda.
Now if they would only bring us the new Focus.