Ford and Google have announced a partnership which will see the car manufacturer’s vehicles running the Android operating system from 2023 onwards with Google app and services built in.
This strategic alliance is designed to accelerate Ford’s vision of a connected vehicle experience.
Ford and Google will establish a collaborative group called Team Upshift which will leverage the talents of both companies to create new users experiences for everything from in-car driving applications to new retail experiences.
Ford has also announced Google Cloud as its preferred cloud provider which will offer world class expertise in data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
“As a customer, your usual experience is that your vehicle tech will gradually become less advanced, but with this partnership it’ll be the opposite – your vehicle tech will continuously improve, and with that, so will your driving experience.
“Our 2,500-strong team in Australia engineer world-class global vehicles, and connectivity is an ever-growing part of that development. We’ll keep prioritising the growth and development of our Australian team to support and benefit from these exciting new technologies.”
From 2023 we can expect Ford cars will incorporate more Google apps and technology including Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play.
With Google Assistant, drivers will be able to use their voice for anything they need to do in their car while keeping their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.
Google Maps will become the primary navigation with real-time traffic information, automatic re-routing and lane guidance.
Through Google Play, drivers will be able to access their favourite apps to listen to their music, digital radio stations, podcasts and audiobooks.
And because the basis for the system is Android, third party developers will be able to build apps to improve and personalise the driving experience.
