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Ford Abandons Microsoft for BlackBerry's QNX

posted by Dopefish on Sunday February 23 2014, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the color-me-surprised dept.

joekiser writes "In 2010, Ford Motor Company was rated as top-five automotive manufacturer in terms of quality, per J.D. Power and Associates. This was a major turnaround for the automotive giant, which had faced bankruptcy just two years prior. This high reliability rating would be short lived however; Ford began installing touch screen hubs powered by Microsoft SYNC, which were both confusing and buggy.

By 2012, Ford quality rankings had dropped to 23rd, even after numerous software upgrades and a rebranding of SYNC to "MyFordTouch." One customer reported:

"The voice controls typically do not work until the vehicle has been on for five to 10 minutes, meaning short trips require dialing phone calls by hand, only to have the call cut off when the system finally starts up."

This slide continued into 2013, when Ford ranked 27th of 28 brands (as an aside, Ford's premium brand, Lincoln, ranked one slot higher that year at 26th).

Apparently, Ford Motor Company has had enough. On Friday, the Detroit News reported that Ford will make the switch to QNX on future vehicles. This is the same platform currently used by Acura, Audi, BMW, and Land Rover."

[ED Note: "Ford Motor Company's decision to move to QNX aside, I'll be heavily considering a Blackberry for my next phone, especially with rumors of a 64-bit octa-core model for later this year. BB10 also has gotten rave reviews for its design and ease-of-use."]

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Grishnakh on Monday February 24 2014, @02:04AM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:04AM (#5442)

    but it doesn't have that horrible, distraction-filled, touch-screen based, multi-purpose centre console that seem to be built into every new car and truck.

    Have you only been looking at high-end vehicles? Go look at the econoboxes, and it should be pretty easy to find cars without touchscreens. The Mazda 3, for instance, I'm fairly sure does not have any kind of touchscreen (either standard or optional).

  • (Score: 1) by beckett on Monday February 24 2014, @02:47AM

    by beckett (1115) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:47AM (#5467)
    feature creep has hit the mazda 3 as well: the 2014MY has a 7-inch touchscreen for everything from satnav to communications to media [cars.com]. sometimes i just need to drive.

    • (Score: 1) by Grishnakh on Monday February 24 2014, @08:45PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:45PM (#6156)

      Wow, that's depressing. Who the heck still wants a factory nav system anyway? I can tell from the photos in the article that this car's nav system is clunky and already obsolete, and the car is brand new!