Ford's head of electronics told Autoblog today that the future of SYNC is already in the works, including the possibility of one day opening up the platform to the developer community.
Jim Buczkowski, Ford's director of electronics and electrical systems said he sees SYNC as a platform on which creative innovation could be built. He said if such a developer program were ever to be implemented, it would work much like Apple's program where outside developers build apps that would be evaluated by Ford before being made available to customers. Buczkowski said the first priority in evaluating apps, though, would be to ensure safety for drivers.
There are no definite plans for a "SYNC SDK" anytime soon, but it is an indication that Ford is busy working to keep SYNC ahead of the competition.
Ford's Executive Vice President Mark Fields told us in another CES interview that with SYNC, Ford is now able to behave more like a technology company than an automotive company. New sheet metal takes much longer to design and implement than a software update that would give Ford owners many new features. To keep up the innovative pace, Fields said they seek input from customers in the blogospheres, focus groups and from Ford's SYNC My Ride Web site.
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