Ford and Baidu jointly release SYNC+, Ford's intelligent infotainment system

On April 3, Ford China officially launched its first cooperation project with Baidu in the field of connected vehicles - the intelligent infotainment system SYNC+. Starting from 2019, most of Ford's domestically produced Ford and Lincoln brand new models will be equipped with the SYNC+ system, aiming to bring Ford's intelligent connected upgrade experience to Chinese consumers, making their lives more convenient and enjoyable.

It is reported that SYNC+ is the first cooperation project between Ford and Baidu in the field of Internet of Vehicles. In June 2018, Ford and Baidu reached a strategic cooperation intention. Both parties are committed to developing and exploring in-depth cooperation in the fields of Internet of Vehicles, digital solutions, artificial intelligence technology and digital marketing, and jointly creating a benchmark for smart cars in the industry. Based on this cooperation intention, the two parties jointly developed the SYNC+ in-vehicle system based on Baidu Xiaodu in-vehicle OS artificial intelligence Internet of Vehicles technology to provide users with innovative in-vehicle infotainment systems and digital services.

Seamless interconnected experience: New cars equipped with the SYNC+ Intelligent Travel Infotainment System will be able to connect with the car-side and mobile-side accounts by binding with the "Ford Pie" or "Lincoln Way" owner APP, allowing car owners to enjoy a seamless interconnected experience of getting off the car-mobile phone-person in multiple life scenarios. This means that you can not only enjoy the rich services brought by the Baidu ecosystem in the car, but also remotely control the vehicle through the mobile phone and obtain exclusive services for Ford owners. Imagine that your daily smart connected life starts like this - before going out, you can check the condition of the car through your mobile phone to ensure travel safety, and remotely turn on the air conditioning and seat heating in the car; locate the vehicle and search for the destination on the mobile phone, and push the destination to the car computer to realize real-time sharing of the navigation route of the mobile phone and the car computer; when the driving is completed, the mobile phone navigation automatically switches to walking mode to help you complete the "last mile" seamless connection. In addition, whether it is the mobile phone or the car computer, you can simultaneously obtain vehicle service reminders, online appointments for vehicle maintenance, digital roadside assistance and other services.

SYNC+ can be bound to the "FordPass" car owner app to achieve interoperability between the car and mobile phone accounts, allowing car owners to enjoy a seamless interconnected experience of getting off the car, mobile phone, and people in multiple life scenarios

Intelligent voice recognition : With the help of Baidu's artificial intelligence technology, SYNC+ has natural semantic recognition function, combined with the context of more than 150 real-life scenarios, and can interact with the car owner like a real person. It can understand your needs and control various in-car usage scenarios, including air conditioning, navigation, entertainment content playback, etc. 

Smart Navigation : SYNC+ uses Baidu's smart navigation, which not only supports destination fuzzy search, 3D route guidance, real-time traffic query, and personalized voice broadcast, but also can achieve precise positioning and navigation in weak or no network conditions; based on Baidu's big data capabilities, it can achieve more accurate travel time estimation. In addition, it can also actively recommend surrounding points of interest, multi-way point intelligent route planning, multi-vehicle team travel and other innovative functions according to the owner's preferences.

SYNC+ uses Baidu's intelligent navigation, which not only supports destination fuzzy search, 3D route guidance, real-time traffic query, and personalized voice broadcast, but also can achieve accurate positioning and navigation in weak or no network conditions.

Rich entertainment content personalized recommendation: SYNC+ integrates tens of millions of entertainment content, covering popular audio content platforms such as QQ Music, Leting Toutiao, Himalaya, etc.; SYNC+ can continuously learn about your preferences, and combine on-demand big data analysis to make personalized recommendations for your preferred content. It is worth mentioning that based on the intelligent solution of Baidu and iQiyi, "Xiaodu Car OS Version of iQiyi" was released on SYNC+ for the first time. In addition to enjoying the full amount of copyrighted content, users can also use voice to perform operations such as previous/next episode, pause/play, etc. Users can also log in to their iQiyi account on the car machine, synchronize the playback records on the mobile phone, and achieve a seamless playback experience, allowing you to enjoy a pleasant audio-visual time with family and friends when you park and rest.

SYNC+ integrates millions of entertainment contents and can provide personalized recommendations based on the owner’s preferences.

"Xiaodu Car OS version of iQiyi" was first released on SYNC+

One-stop travel service: Car owners can book hotels, buy movie tickets, order takeout, check air tickets, train ticket information, and parking spaces through voice in the car. It also supports multiple payment platforms, such as WeChat, Alipay, and Du Xiaoman Pay, and can scan codes to pay in the car, allowing them to enjoy a worry-free life. 

Smart car-home interconnection: Through SYNC+, you can connect with smart home devices in the Baidu ecosystem and use voice to control smart home devices at home, including robot vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, lights, air conditioners, etc. For example, when it is cold, you can turn on the air conditioner in the living room on your way home so that you can feel the spring breeze as soon as you enter the house.

Continuous optimization, safety and reliability : Convenience and intelligence do not stop there. Ford and Baidu will continue to listen to consumer feedback, continuously optimize the interactive interface and system of SYNC+, cooperate to develop more innovative in-vehicle applications based on artificial intelligence technology, and continuously update software and functions through over-the-air software upgrades (OTA). 

It is also worth mentioning that Ford's information security team has applied global information security standards since the design stage of software and hardware, and worked with Baidu and suppliers to ensure the information security of car owners during the use of SYNC+. Baidu detects and repairs security vulnerabilities in the source code during the software development cycle, and is equipped with an artificial intelligence vehicle firewall to comprehensively and stably protect network and information security. After the software and hardware design was completed, Ford also hired a third-party team to test SYNC+ to further improve overall security. During the use of car owners, all data transmitted by SYNC+ is encrypted to protect personal information. During each over-the-air software upgrade (OTA), Ford will pre-authenticate the upgrade package and transmit it in an encrypted manner to ensure the security and stability of the OTA.