Android Auto was announced at Google I/O 2014 but it’s adoption into cars has been very slow with only a handful of cars offering it as the standard in-car entertainment system. With Holden announcing that the 2016 model of their Captiva will be released with Android Auto in tow it is now Ford’s turn to join the Android Auto party.
At CES in Las Vegas Ford have come out swinging announcing that their in-car entertainment system, SYNC 3, will allow users to select how they access their smartphones. This means that they have built in Android Auto (and Apple CarPlay) support to their current software.
In North America Android Auto will be available on all 2017 Ford vehicles that are equipped with SYNC 3 with owners of 2016 vehicles being able to upgrade later in the year. At this stage it is unclear whether it will be rolled out to all 2016 and 2017 cars in Australia but we have reached out to Ford for comment and will keep you posted.
In other news Ford showed that it is not “all in” in Android Auto or CarPlay by upping the offerings for their own smartphone app interface software, SYNC AppLink to include more apps and have also announced that Toyota will be including the open source version, SmartDeviceLink, in their cars going forwards. Other manufacturers including PSA Peugeot Citroën, Honda, Subaru and Mazda are also investigating the software.
For car buyers going forwards it seems the in-car entertainment options will be plentiful, a far cry from the painful proprietary systems that many of our cars carry. Personally I am going to go the aftermarket Android Auto option. What about you?
