TI may have given up on phone and tablet sector but it’s still mobile with the OMAP5 and QNX-powered SYNC 3 from Ford

Ford led the auto industry with the 2007 introduction of SYNC, a quick and easy way to connect mobile devices and control them with voice commands. The system was relatively reliable and easy to use but when the time came for a followup in 2010, the automaker stumbled badly with MyFord Touch. Ford will attempt a reboot in 2015 with a completely new system dubbed SYNC 3.

Ford unveiled SYNC 3 and demonstrated it today at its Dearborn Product Development Center and it looks extremely promising so far. Like MyFord Touch which was known internally as SYNC 2, the new system is based around a touch screen display. Unfortunately the earlier system had a dark and cluttered user interface that was prone to frequent crashes and lockups and even after two major software updates was still slow. MyFord Touch also never incorporated AppLink to enable the control of smartphone apps, a feature that was available on the entry-level SYNC system.

As soon as SYNC 3 launches, the changes are immediately apparent. The bright new interface is dramatically simplified and easier to use. The look and feel seems to have taken inspiration from the work that Google has done one recent versions of Android although iPhone users won’t feel left out either.

When sampling the system on some demonstration bucks, the performance improvement was immediately apparent. Where a button press on the MFT screen would be met with a pause before any response would occur, SYNC 3 seems to respond almost immediately. The capacitive screen supports multi-touch and gestures like swipe and pinch-to-zoom. The Microsoft Auto Windows Embedded Platform that powered earlier versions of SYNC has been replaced with the same QNX system used by many other automakers. The whole thing is now running on a more modern Texas Instruments OMAP5 processor based on ARM Cortex A15 cores used in many smartphone chips.

The smartphone style keyboard includes predictive typing and the ability to learn from driver’s usage patterns

The SYNC 3 system also includes a built-in WiFi receiver that you can pair with your home network. Every few weeks, when the car is parked, it will automatically ping the Ford servers and look for updates, just like modern phones do. When updates are available, they will downloaded and installed automatically with no user intervention needed. No more mailing out hundreds of thousands of USB drives for Ford or visits to the dealer to re-flash the radio.

Ford CTO Raj Nair announced that SYNC 3 will support Apple’s SIRI Eyes-free out of the box. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support will eventually be added as well although no time frame was given.

It’s way too early to tell how well this is all going to work when it arrives in new Ford vehicles beginning in 2015, but at this point it certainly looks promising and it can’t really be any worse than MyFord Touch can it?