[Ken]

Christof Kellerwessel is Ford's electrical engineering chief. He said recently that we are surrounded by hundreds of competitors and have been in this business for more than 110 years. We've seen a lot of competitors come and go. The constant development of new vehicles is not the easiest business to be in, but our eyes are open and we see the developments taking place. We're not hiding behind the wall and hoping nothing is happening outside.

We collaborate but we need to make sure that our vehicles continue to be Ford vehicles. We partner with both Google and Apple to integrate Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in the next-generation Sync, which will be introduced in U.S. later this year.




Connected car doesn't only mean within the Internet of Things but also between cars. In this space we have a lot of consortia and we need to partner with all the other automakers. We won't get anywhere if Ford vehicles can only talk to each other. For this technology to be implemented it's really crucial that we come up with standards worldwide and that all the vehicles can exchange data. We are involved in various consortiums in North America and Europe and we're striving for commonalities.

 

[Bingo Bus]

I think this is the way forward, Apple and Google have built some very good platforms and it would make sense to have full integration with these devices. I do find the Ford in car entertainment lacking somewhat compared to rivals with their new touch screens.

 

[SeaPea]

I would recommend Nokia Here Maps sat nav which is available free for iOS Andriod and Windows. It scores over others in that it will allow maps by country to be downloaded allowing nav completely offline. Google maps etc only download the route so if you are routed of this and don't have a connection it fails. It will also give realtime traffic info but needs to be online for this.It allows car, pedestrian etc.
It does not however interface well with the car on Andriod, (I have an S5) you need to switch off media to get voice and it will then be through the phone. This is a small downside for an excellent app and hopefully it will be addressed in future updates.