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"Microsoft Was Unable to Meaningfully Improve the Software"

posted by janrinok on Monday October 24 2016, @11:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the many-will-not-be-surprised dept.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

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

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @04:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @04:30PM (#418605)

    I don't know who does both things well. Maybe Tesla? Who knows.

    I've had a fair bit of luck with my Acura system. The voice recognition system gets it right probably about 90% of the time (even for some non-trivial street names for GPS directions). Of course, 10% it goes horribly wrong, but the manual type-in system isn't terrible, either.

    My main complaint is that it disables the manual typing system when the car is moving, even if I have a passenger in the passenger seat who could safely enter data.