Ford Bails on Microsoft in their Connected Car in Favour of–Wait for It–Blackberry
After a stream of bad news, this has to make the people in Waterloo rather happy.
Ford, which co-developed the SYNC infotainment system with Microsoft, has let it be known that all further updates will be based on Blackberry’s QNX OS. Why? Because the Microsoft-based SYNC has been buggy to the point of driving down Ford’s overall reliability ratings. That just won’t do.
QNX has been a bright spot for Blackberry. It’s already used to power infotainment systems in vehicles by BMW, Audi, Kia and Hyundai. It’s also used in Chrysler’s UConnect, which I quite like.
Read more at The Truth About Cars.
Really good news. I’m in the auto industry, heading up the leasing division of a large rental/sales/ lease company. We move a ton of vehicles, and the biggest and most frequents complaints I hear are relating to in car connectivity, especially on Ford product. Their Sync system just isn’t user friendly, and doesn’t work all the time.
When you compare it to every other system, Ford really dropped the ball.
I’ve really liked the UConnect in my Ram and Jeep vehicles, and GM’s Intellilink system has been really good. Big fan of the Audi and BMW systems as well.
As a platform using QNX is a great move with a real time OS that can truly deliver. This is a good move for Ford.