Just when you thought you and your car couldn't take anymore connectivity, Microsoft has developed a software platform that takes in-car communications and entertainment to a new level. Right now, Ford has an exclusive with the Microsoft program. This year it will appear in 12 Ford, Mercury and Lincoln models - the 2008 Ford Focus, Fusion, Taurus, Edge, Freestyle, Explorer, and Sport Trac; Mercury Milan, Montego, and Mountaineer; and Lincoln MKX and MKZ. Up to 12 phones can be paired with a Sync-equipped vehicle (with one connected at any given time).
The Microsoft/Ford alliance calls this system fully integrated. What that means is that this system in built into the electronic systems of the car and is factory installed. Whereas an aftermarket system, or one that is not fully integrated would not know to lower the volume of the radio when you get a phone call, the Sync system does automatically. When that call comes through, you listen to it through the speakers in the vehicle. Your music can be played off of a memory stick or through your music device. These are features that have not been widely available or as comprehensive.
Usually new "gimmicks" go in luxury cars first. But Ford put the system in lower priced cars like the Focus because the big users of music devices are younger people and they buy the lower-priced cars. The Sync option is $395 when it isn't standard and there are no monthly fees.
Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford, says that you never, ever have to download your address book again and that Sync is fully updatable and compatible with leading digital music devices and phones. And if there ever were two more important ideas than updatable and compatible for the iPod crowd and other personal device addicts, I don't know what they are. The Sync system is also multilingual - English, French, and Spanish.
Sync connects wireless phones or phones that also play music through Bluetooth, which is basically a short-range wireless system that interconnects your phone to the vehicle. Personal devices are connected through a USB 2.0 port. Then you are ready to transfer names and numbers from your mobile phone wirelessly into the vehicle; and to connect nearly any digital media player, including the Apple iPod, Microsoft Zune, PlaysForSure players, and most USB storage devices.
Press the "Push to Talk" button on your steering wheel and say the name of the person you wish to call or tell Sync which genre, album, artist, or song title you're after and Sync connects you using voice command.
If you're getting into the car, you no longer need to hang up on a call because Sync connects you to a Bluetooth phone when you push the Telephone Button on the steering wheel. Sync also converts text messages including standard texting expressions like "LOL" and "J" and reads them aloud to you. You reply using any of 20 predefined responses.
Sync promises to be fully upgradeable when new products come on the market so there won't be any issues with obsolescence. Ford/Microsoft has not yet announced whether or not this will come with a price tag, but there is no billable-from-the-dealer features attached to Sync. The system uses your ringtones including ones that you use to identify a caller.
Off the bus
Here's where I get off the bus. Sync includes caller ID, call waiting, conference calling, a caller log, a list of contacts, a signal strength icon, and a phone battery charge icon, all of which are displayed on the radio's display screen along with the name of album, artist, song title, etc. Add this to the already overwhelming amount of information at the ready in today's cars including maps and voice-activated directions and you have distractions with a capital D. In addition, Microsoft promises that new features will be added to the Sync system in the future.
Do I want to be driving on a road where other drivers - especially the very young drivers who are completely committed to connectivity - are checking caller ID or setting up a conference call instead of veering over the center line and into me? Spare me - that's my prayer.
There really isn't any turning back on this connectivity business. "Ford and Microsoft share a vision for a future where drivers are safely connected to the people, information and entertainment they care about while they are on the road," says Bill Gates. If only we could get them to care as much about paying attention to the task at hand - driving the car - while they are "on the road."
Ford tells me that they put all that information on the screen because customers demand it. And whatever the customer wants - even if it is a teenager with a telephone, an iPod, and a newly minted driver's license - the customer gets.
Could Ford remove the visual information? Probably. Would that save some lives? Maybe. But then they'd have unhappy customers. It's a dilemma. And it would take a different generation to say, "No, you cannot have this while you are driving."
My mother's generation, for example. They knew how to say no.
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