Ford and Microsoft Sync infotainment system signals changes for manufacturing

The flash-based device will support most mobile phones and control MP3 music players, with options for voice command and steering wheel button-activation. Other car companies are developing similar technologies, and the Sync system harnesses technology developed by Microsoft for Fiat. For Microsoft, this is the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft and McLaren Electronic Systems (MES) are the official suppliers of engine control units (ECUs) for the Formula One World Championships from 2008 to 2010. The pair are working to develop the ECUs and will then manufacture them for all F1 teams – with the ECUs monitoring all aspects of the cars’ powertrains and gathering data from some 100 sensors located on each for real-time wireless broadcast to the teams’ track-side systems. Microsoft says this is a testbed for what its calling the Car-IT project or Generation 2 Telematics, aimed ultimately at transforming IT content and functionality throughout the auto sector – and then beyond. Manuel Simas, director of world-wide automotive industry at Microsoft, predicts that within five years IT-driven change here will be “phenomenal”. For example, he expects a new level of vehicle diagnostics and prognostics – preventative maintenance, with onboard systems derived from F1 recognising impending fault conditions and indicating, even organising, remedial action. More than that, he envisages a world in which drivers log onto their profile in any car they are authorised to drive, using biometric or other digital recognition technology. “That will not only enable the vehicles, adjust seats and steering wheel positions and so on, but give drivers immediate access to their favourite Internet services – like streaming video for entertaining passengers – and service providers access to them.” What does all this signal for other manufacturers? The clues are in the likely crashing costs and new capabilities of ultra-mobile PCs, the development and spread of the associated ultra-robust, always-on supporting wireless web infrastructure and also the ideas for innovative web services, with their potential for new business streams, loyalty-building and competitive advantage. Picking up the latter point, Simas doesn’t just talk about car prognostics with exception conditions automatically relayed to customers’ preferred service organisations. He also muses on the potential for Car IT to track car performance in different driving conditions, to analyse driver behaviour, record road conditions and so on. Armed with such real-world data, manufacturers and service providers could modify everything from vehicle design to accessory provision and pricing. They could also get much closer to understanding real costs of warranty and insurance and the kinds of services the market wants. And there’s the potential for Amazon-like preference profile building for more effective marketing, cross selling and so on. As Simas says: “Access to that kind of data could be business gold dust.” Meanwhile, thinking of the underlying technology, the potential for improving products with smart facilities for configuration, communication, automated service requests and so on becomes more real. Simas makes the point that F1 racing has to be among the world’s most demanding technical environments so we can anticipate wireless IT that really works almost anywhere.