SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Computerworld reports
Ford engineer called MyFord Touch infotainment system "a polished turd"
Documents in a class-action lawsuit against Ford and its original MyFord Touch in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system reveal that the company's engineers and even its top executive were frustrated with the problematic technology.
The documents from the 2013 lawsuit show Ford engineers believed the IVI, which was powered by the SYNC operating system launched in 2010, might be "unsaleable" and even described a later upgrade as a "polished turd", according to a report in the Detroit News , which was confirmed by Computerworld.
The SYNC OS was originally powered by Microsoft software. Microsoft continued releasing software revisions it knew were defective, according to the lawsuit.
"In the spring of 2011, Ford hired Microsoft to oversee revisions, and hopefully the improvement, of the [software]. But ... Microsoft was unable to meaningfully improve the software, and Ford continued releasing revised software that it knew was still defective", the lawsuit states.
[The week of October 3], a U.S. District Court judge certified the case as a class action.
Consumer groups from nine states are involved in the lawsuit against Ford. The lawsuit describes an IVI screen that would freeze or go blank; generate error messages that wouldn't go away; voice recognition and navigation systems that failed to work; problems wirelessly pairing with smartphones; and a generally slow system.
[...] In 2014, Ford announced it was dropping Microsoft as the platform supplier for SYNC and moving to one based on Blackberry QNX for its SYNC 3 IVI.
Previous: It's Official: Ford Dumps Windows for QNX
(Score: 2, Informative) by ledow on Tuesday October 25 2016, @06:52AM
I have a 2016 Mondeo (I think it's called the Fusion in other parts of the world?).
It has the Microsoft sync software. Even has a little badge to tell you so.
I was dreading it but, I have to say, I don't have many problems with it. It's a little sluggish when you change functions. But it just works. Bluetooth to your phones, USB, satnav, climate control etc. all seem to just work. The voice recognition is as good as any I've used, which is to say pointless and gimmicky.
I'm about as far from a Microsoft fan as you can get, but I don't see the problems described. Maybe they patched the bugs out or something, but mine just works.
To be honest, at this point, if you offered me a free upgrade to something else, it would have to come with some really good features or be getting massive rave reviews to risk me upgrading it.
Ford are good, cheap, easy to maintain cars. Never excelling in any particular feature, but easy to drive, easy to fix, cheap to find parts.
From what I see, their Sync thing is the same. Not all fancy features, it just works, and it's on a board module that can be swapped out.
And for about £20 I can buy an SD off eBay with the new satnav maps for it, without having to ask Ford, which is unusual for any modern car.