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All Ford vehicles will have built-in 4G LTE by 2020
Ford's vision for the future is electric, connectivity and assisted driving. For the Blue Oval company, that means by 2020 its entire lineup will have 4G LTE connectivity and offer Waze navigation by way of AppLink and Sync 3. The former means that all aspects of a vehicle can be updated over the air rather than just the Sync platform. The latter is a bid to make the road safer by decreasing distracted driving that's caused by fumbling with your phone while behind the wheel; all cars with Sync 3 can start using Waze next month. And after studying how people use their trucks, the F-150 will have an available bed-mounted generator for the folks who need to export power on the job-site -- an idea Chevy experimented with on its ZH2 concept truck for the military.
Video: Microsoft's next-gen SYNC finds cheap gas then blows our doors off
Microsoft's and Ford's next generation SYNC has official taken us from our origin at Smittenville to the rural outpost of Gobsmacked. The new SYNC adds 911 Assist, SIRIUS Travel Link navigation, and DVD playback on a large 8- or 6.5-inch touchscreen display depending upon the guzzler you choose. The full $1,995 navigation option (or $395 for just the voice-controlled SYNC) is available exclusively on Ford's 2009 Escape, Escape hybrid, Flex, Lincoln MKS and F150 before rolling out to the rest of Ford's fleet. A new 10GB hard drive "Jukebox" has also been added which allows you to insert a CD, lookup the Gracenote CDDB info (including cover art) from the pre-installed database, and then rip the audio back to the disk if you choose. Rounding out the features are Sirius Radio (of course); aux-in and USB-in device (yes, iPods) support; voice commands; streaming audio and SMS text to voice read-out from Bluetooth enabled-phones; and several real-time, Sirius Travel Link services such as traffic data, weather detail, sports info, movies listings, and even gas prices at nearby pumps. Timely. Video walkthrough after the break.[Via Autospies]
