Ford Sync Gets Upgrade, Turn-by-Turn Navigation

The arms race for in-car technology keeps heating up: Even as Toyota rolled out a new telematics system to challenge OnStar, Ford shot back today with an announcement that its Sync entertainment and communications system would get an upgrade.

The wireless, voice-activated Sync will now include real-time traffic information along with turn-by-turn directions. As if that doesn’t sound cool enough, the upgrade will also offer news and sports scores that drivers can customize to fit their individual tastes.

How soon can you buy a car with the new and improved Sync? The technology will launch later this year in select 2010 models, but by the time 2011 models hit dealerships, it will be standard in all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles.

Comments

Bah, there's no backward compatibility with 3.0 though, unfortunately. Apparently there's a GPS chip that can't be installed retroactively.

does it speak directions or do u have 2 look at the little screen constantly..i prefer a map 2 look at!

There's no possibility of a map, unless you've got the navigation system, which would add more functionality (I'm assuming). However, it would speak the directions. And show them on the screen with little direction arrows (left, right, u-turn, etc.) as well.