Ford navigation will be powered by Google Android Auto starting 2023

[timf343]

Really interesting.


UPDATED WITH FORD PRESS RELEASE:

Ford and Google to Accelerate Auto Innovation, Reinvent Connected Vehicle Experience

• Ford and Google come together in first-of-its-kind partnership to create unique services and capabilities for Ford and Lincoln customers, and to accelerate Ford’s transformation plan
• Ford has also named Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider to leverage Google’s world-class expertise in data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML)
• As part of this new, six-year partnership—and beginning in 2023—millions of future Ford and Lincoln vehicles at all price points will be powered by Android, with Google apps and services built-in
• To drive ongoing innovation, Ford and Google are establishing a new collaborative group, Team Upshift, that will push the boundaries of Ford’s transformation, unlock personalized consumer experiences, and drive disruptive, data-driven opportunities

Dearborn, Mich., and Sunnyvale, Calif., Feb. 1, 2021 – Ford and Google today announced a unique strategic partnership to accelerate Ford’s transformation and reinvent the connected vehicle experience. Ford has also named Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider to leverage Google’s world-class expertise in data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). As part of this new, six-year partnership—and beginning in 2023—millions of future Ford and Lincoln vehicles at all price points will be powered by Android, with Google apps and services built-in.

To drive ongoing innovation, Ford and Google are establishing a new collaborative group, Team Upshift. Leveraging the talent and assets of both companies, Team Upshift will push the boundaries of Ford’s transformation, unlock personalized consumer experiences, and drive disruptive, data-driven opportunities. This may include projects ranging from developing new retail experiences when buying a vehicle, creating new ownership offers based on data, and more.

“As Ford continues the most profound transformation in our history with electrification, connectivity and self-driving, Google and Ford coming together establishes an innovation powerhouse truly able to deliver a superior experience for our customers and modernize our business,” said Jim Farley, President and CEO of Ford.

“From the first moving assembly line to the latest driver-assist technology, Ford has set the pace of innovation for the automotive industry for nearly 120 years,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “We’re proud to partner to apply the best of Google’s AI, data analytics, compute and cloud platforms to help transform Ford's business and build automotive technologies that keep people safe and connected on the road.”

As its preferred cloud provider and starting later this year, Google will help Ford leverage Google Cloud’s AI, ML and data analytics technologies to accelerate the automaker’s digital transformation, modernize operations, and power connected vehicle technologies with Google’s trusted, secure, and reliable cloud. With Google Cloud, Ford plans to:

• Further improve customer experiences for customers with differentiated technology and personalized services;
• Accelerate modernization of product development, manufacturing and supply chain management, including exploration of using vision AI for manufacturing employee training and even more reliable plant equipment performance;
• Fast track the implementation of data-driven business models resulting in customers receiving real-time notices such as maintenance requests or trade-in alerts.

Ford and Google have a shared vision to bring enjoyable, safer and more efficient connected vehicle experiences built to minimize driver distraction and keep customers at the forefront of technology with over-the-air updates. Beginning in 2023, Ford and Lincoln customers globally will start to benefit from unique digital experiences built on top of the Android operating system and with Google apps and services built-in, which include world-class map and voice technology:

• With Google Assistant, drivers can keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, by getting things done with just their voice.
• With Google Maps as the vehicles’ primary navigation, drivers can reach their destination faster with information on real-time traffic, automatic rerouting, lane guidance and more.
• With Google Play, drivers will have access to their favorite apps for listening to music, podcasts, audiobooks and more. These apps are optimized and integrated for in-vehicle use.
• Android in the car also enables Ford and third-party developers to build apps that provide a constantly improving and ever-more-personalized ownership experience.

“We are obsessed with creating must-have, distinctively Ford products and services,” said Farley. “This integration will unleash our teams to innovate for Ford and Lincoln customers while seamlessly providing access to Google’s world-class apps and services.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------





https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/01/for...-year-deal-for-android-in-car-apps-cloud.html

Ford and Google sign six-year deal for in-car connectivity and cloud services

Jim Farley in 2017.
Luke Macgregor | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ford and Google are entering a six-year deal that will make the tech giant responsible for much of the automaker’s growing in-vehicle connectivity. Google will also provide cloud computing and other technology services.

The partnership announced Monday is designed to streamline Ford’s operations and accelerate an ongoing $11 billion restructuring plan. It marks a major shift for the automaker, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years to develop and maintain such systems.

It will also give Google a new marquee customer for its cloud computing technology, which lags behind rivals Amazon and Microsoft in market share, and shows how Google is willing to use assets such as its mobile dominance to help build its cloud business. The deal is not exclusive, allowing the companies to use other clouds or existing Ford data centers.

Under the deal, Ford and Lincoln vehicles will sport Android, the Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play starting in 2023, and Google’s cloud will enable other types of services. For instance, Google said Ford is looking to use the tech giant’s cloud to enable a system for sending customers messages about maintenance or trade-in opportunities.

Google will also help Ford use artificial intelligence in areas such as supply chain logistics and manufacturing, the companies said.

Ford CEO Jim Farley: Partnerships are key

The partnership is the most recent change for Ford under Jim Farley, who has restructured the automaker’s operations and management team since becoming CEO in October. The company’s stock is up about 60% under his tenure.

“One of the most important parts of our strategy is to partner,” Farley told CNBC.

“That means that we have to get out of the business of doing generic things that we do not add value, like navigation systems and a lot of the in-car entertainment experience.”

He added, “We were spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions every year, keeping up with basically a generic experience that was not competitive to your cellphone.”

Farley said the deal is worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars, but declined to provide a specific number.

Despite automakers like Ford spending significant capital to develop such systems, consumers have moved toward using Google’s Android Auto or Apple’sCarPlay programs while driving, according to industry groups such a J.D. Power. The programs mirror phone apps on in-vehicle infotainment screens, providing a more familiar interface for drivers.

Ford’s largest crosstown rival, General Motors, announced a deal in 2019 to integrate Google’s voice assistant and app ecosystem into its vehicles beginning this year. A GM spokesman confirmed those plans remain on track.
Ford’s partnership with Google is broader than the GM-Google deal. Employees from both companies will be part of a new group called Team UpShift, which will use Google’s services and data expertise to better streamline Ford’s operations and create a more seamless experience for customers, Farley said.
Farley said Ford analyzed several companies before choosing Google. He said the automaker specifically liked Google’s cloud services – an increasingly important technology for automakers as they begin updating vehicles remotely. Cellphone providers have remotely updated products for years, however automakers (other than Tesla) have been slow to adopt such practices.

Farley compared the company’s opportunity to retain customers through in-car connectivity to cellphone providers and services such as Amazon Prime becoming so integrated in people’s lives that they remain with a certain brand or product. Such services include predictive maintenance, apps and data utilization to allow companies to more regularly interact with customers after they purchase a vehicle.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity. Bigger than electrification,” Farley said. “All the digital capability and conductivity and the digital ecosystem outside of the vehicle are all coming together to a loyalty model, where people will have a much more difficult time switching brands.”

A cloud win for Google

The cloud business win for Google is one that either Amazon or Microsoft could have picked up instead.

The more Google can expand in cloud computing, the less it has to lean on advertising, a business that showed vulnerability in 2020 when an 8% annualized decrease in Google advertising sales caused Alphabet’s first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter of 2020.

Google aspires to become a larger force in the cloud market, where Amazon held 45% share and Microsoft had 18% in 2019, leaving Google with 5%, according to estimates from technology industry research company Gartner. In the third quarter of 2020, Google parent Alphabet said cloud revenue, including contributions from Google Workspace productivity software, was $3.44 billion, or 7% of revenue, while Amazon’s Web Services cloud division generated $11.60 billion in revenue.

Ford has a history with the other two cloud vendors. Years ago, the company used Microsoft software to power its Sync in-car communications system, but after consumers encountered technical issues, Ford in 2014 switched Sync to BlackBerry’s QNX.

In 2015 Ford committed to using Microsoft’s Azure cloud to deliver software updates to vehicles, and Ford agreed to a multiyear deal with Amazon Web Services in 2019. Ford and Google did not immediately make clear exactly which cloud computing services from Microsoft and AWS would be replaced by Google services instead.

Google has looked to widen its cloud business by focusing on five industries, including manufacturing, since Oracle executive Thomas Kurian came to Googleto lead its cloud efforts in 2019. Google has also sought to make inroads in media, entertainment and gaming. Last year when Google announced a deal with Activision Blizzard, it also said Google-owned YouTube was becoming the game developer’s exclusive venue for streaming esports events.

“We always say, ‘Hey, let’s look at what problems we are trying to solve for the client,’ and ‘How do we think more broadly about that?’” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud unit, in an interview on Monday. “In some cases they want only the cloud portion from Google. In other cases, they want other aspects of Google.”

Sponsored

 

[mnstang]

Really interesting.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/01/for...-year-deal-for-android-in-car-apps-cloud.html

Wonder what that means for the sync eco-system. If they will keep it or start a whole new infotainment system.

 

[timf343]

Wonder what that means for the sync eco-system. If they will keep it or start a whole new infotainment system.

The article does mention:

"Under the deal, Ford and Lincoln vehicles will sport Android, the Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play starting in 2023."

 

[Orlando150]

Sounds like Sync will be gone.

 

[timf343]

Sounds like Sync will be gone.

I'm not sure. From reading the evolution of Sync (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Sync), it seems like it was first based on Microsoft software, and then in 2014 Sync 3 switched to Blackberry software. And now it seems like they're switching to Google. My guess is it will still be called Sync, but with different OS behind it that allows you to run any app from the android store?

 

[dog_tired]

My only hesitancy with Google is their privacy policy. The truck is already sharing a ton of data with Ford. Google makes money from selling your data to third parties. Hopefully this won't be an issue with the new system and consumers will be able to set and control privacy policies.

 

[KBKEITH]

More control by Big Tech....

 

[Orlando150]

I'm not sure. From reading the evolution of Sync (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Sync), it seems like it was first based on Microsoft software, and then in 2014 Sync 3 switched to Blackberry software. And now it seems like they're switching to Google. My guess is it will still be called Sync, but with different OS behind it that allows you to run any app from the android store?

Sync was built with a Microsoft or Blackberry backend by Ford. This is a fully Google OS built by Google for multiple car companies. Polestar was the first (and so far only) to launch with Android Automotive and it is fully Google branded. You sign into your car with your Google account, download apps from the Google play store, and use Google Maps: https://www.polestar.com/us/polestar-2/infotainment-software-apps/

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/...oid-automotive-for-a-day-heres-what-its-like/

And apps need to be built specifically for Android Automotive. There are only a few right now.

 

[timf343]

If it's fully Android, it should be more easily hackable (both good and bad). No longer being married to AT&T for their hotspot service would be a big positive of this change.

 

[Orlando150]

If it's fully Android, it should be more easily hackable (both good and bad). No longer being married to AT&T for their hotspot service would be a big positive of this change.

No idea on that yet since availability is so limited but it's a special version of Android not the stock phone version.

Unfortunately Polestar-2 requires an ATT subscription to use the Android system. I guess Android Auto is supported and they Say CarPlay support will be added this year if you don't want another subscription for features already on your phone.

 

[timf343]

No idea on that yet since availability is so limited but it's a special version of Android not the stock phone version.

Unfortunately Polestar-2 requires an ATT subscription to use the Android system. I guess Android Auto is supported and they Say CarPlay support will be added this year if you don't want another subscription for features already on your phone.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. I will admit I’m disappointed to hear ATT is required with Polestar and what that may mean for Ford.

I have unlimited hotspot from another provider that I use for work very often. It works great. Fast and available everywhere.

Hopefully at least WiFi will be an optional alternative to paying for an unnecessary internet connection from ATT.

I remain optimistic that a switch to google away from blackberry (who I didn’t even think still existed) is a positive change.

 

[Just Me]

Great, now we have a 12 inch advertising screen In the middle of the dash. Probably have to watch a commercial just to change the radio to a different channel.

 

[SJLCJL]

Wonder if this means they will go hybrid radio in a few years then.. Certainly would seem possible with google on board..

 

[ddfarmer]

Any idea if this means that in 2023 there will be an over the air update to change to the Android system? Or in two years Sync 4 will no longer be supported, updated and we're stuck with a 12" screen on the old sync system. Which is kind of what happend on 2011.

 

[john.noonan]

Great, now we have a 12 inch advertising screen In the middle of the dash. Probably have to watch a commercial just to change the radio to a different channel.

I use Android Auto from my phone daily and have never seen ad on it, so I doubt there will be a risk of ads.

Sponsored