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joekiser writes "In 2010, Ford Motor Company was rated as top-five automotive manufacturer in terms of quality, per J.D. Power and Associates. This was a major turnaround for the automotive giant, which had faced bankruptcy just two years prior. This high reliability rating would be short lived however; Ford began installing touch screen hubs powered by Microsoft SYNC, which were both confusing and buggy.
By 2012, Ford quality rankings had dropped to 23rd, even after numerous software upgrades and a rebranding of SYNC to "MyFordTouch." One customer reported:
"The voice controls typically do not work until the vehicle has been on for five to 10 minutes, meaning short trips require dialing phone calls by hand, only to have the call cut off when the system finally starts up."
This slide continued into 2013, when Ford ranked 27th of 28 brands (as an aside, Ford's premium brand, Lincoln, ranked one slot higher that year at 26th).
Apparently, Ford Motor Company has had enough. On Friday, the Detroit News reported that Ford will make the switch to QNX on future vehicles. This is the same platform currently used by Acura, Audi, BMW, and Land Rover."
[ED Note: "Ford Motor Company's decision to move to QNX aside, I'll be heavily considering a Blackberry for my next phone, especially with rumors of a 64-bit octa-core model for later this year. BB10 also has gotten rave reviews for its design and ease-of-use."]
(Score: 1) by mojo chan on Sunday February 23 2014, @07:14PM
Check out Mirrolink and Miracast. Basically mirroring your phone's screen, complete with touch control, on the head unit. All the power and apps of your phone, but on the head unit's screen that is much easier to reach and operate (phones wobble about in the holder when you poke them). Works with most Android phones and I believe the iPhone as well. AOSP if you want fully open source.
If my car had a double DIN slot I'd get that kind of set up. Wireless charging so I can just chuck the phone in the slot below the head unit and have it powered, and an NFC tag to automatically start "car mode" with a special home screen. Almost zero boot time because the phone is already on, fully internet access to live traffic or streaming audio, and obviously things like voice dialling and SMS dictation work very well.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1) by ArhcAngel on Sunday February 23 2014, @10:25PM