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Next-Gen Ford Sync Could Include Netflix, Hulu

Next-generation Fords will likely support in-car video streaming from a provider like Hulu or Netflix, perhaps with a universal docking station that could see kids mount their own iPads inside the car.

April 17, 2012

Next-generation Fords will likely support in-car video streaming from a provider like Hulu or Netflix, perhaps with a universal docking station that could see kids mount their own iPads inside the car, a top executive said Monday.

Doing so will also require some flexibility on the part of wireless carriers, possibly including novel on-demand data plans, he said.

John Ellis, former director of software and services for the Americas at Motorola, has only been on the job for a few months as the global technologist for connected services and solutions for Ford. But, Ellis said, he has brought the concept of the mobile device as a platform to Ford, where the automaker has partnered with Microsoft on the Sync telematics platform.

Ellis said that he has begun introducing the concept of a constantly improving vehicle, in much the same way a phone receives a software upgrade, to the company's dealers and customers. The goal is to improve the "cadence" or pace of those upgrades beyond the model year, as Ford did last November with improvement to the Ford MyTouch system.

Automakers have begun adding real-time services, like traffic, while bringing the car and smartphone closer together. Subscribers to Sync Services, for example, use the data connection inside the driver's phones to look for real-time business listings.

"Just because they enter the vehicle, the seamless digital life that they created shouldn't abruptly end," Ellis said in an interview at a test drive of the 2013 Ford Escape on Monday.

Sync's AppLink service allows the Sync system to control some applications, like Pandora - factory-installed in the 2012 Fusion, Mustang, and Lincoln MKZ - via the dashboard. Could today's streaming audio give way to streaming video? Yes, Ellis replied. All of the pieces of the puzzle could be there in time for the next generation of the Sync system. But safety comes first, he said.

"Could we do a Netflix partnership? I think the answer is broadly yes, and if you're going to quote this, you have to have a caveat: yes, but. It depends on the seat," Ellis said. "We're very focused on, before everything else, safety. Preventing the distracted driver. But we're not naive. All of us have kids, we all have families, a lot of the people I work with at Ford have iPads and the kids are in the back seat, and they've got things going. So we see, behaviorally, that people want entertainment. They want entertainment that's unique to them, available on demand. They want the same things that anyone else wants at home. They just want it in the car."

Ellis noted that the U.S. government is "exceptionally, exceptionally concerned about multitasking," where drivers are focusing on more than just the road, enough that the Department of Transportation has suggested guidelines that could phase out in-car connected services. What Ford and other automakers must demonstrate is that those services do not impact any of the drivers on the road, a task Ellis said Ford will spend the necessary time to ensure.

"I think it's inevitable," Ellis said of streaming video in the car. "The question is how, when, and in what form will it take."

Bandwidth Crunch
In-car connected services, however, may not be a technical problem, but a business one. Carriers control the bandwidth, and thus the data pipe into the car. A five-hour road trip, for example, might end up costing the customer money if he exceeded his bandwidth cap. When asked if Ford might subsidize a cellular connection, Ellis said that's an option, but maybe not the most desirable one.

"There's an opportunity where we bundle, and how we package it - that certainly would be a topic on the table," Ellis said. "However, I think the broader conversation that we're challenging carriers with is, use cases that they might not normally be thinking about. So the use case you just talked about - I have a five-hour road trip, and one of the conversations we're raising with carriers is, hey, what about data on demand? I just flew over here [from Chicago] and paid Gogo $14 to use their Wi-Fi connection."

"Would a carrier be willing to do broadband data on the fly? I'm a broadband user, I pack up my van with my kids, but before I leave I turn on broadband XYZ, and maybe it's metered in different ways - maybe it's broadband for streamed data, or maybe it's broadband for streamed music," Ellis added. "These are the challenges we're challenging the carriers with - hey, here's where we think the technology's going, and here's what we think the impediments are going to be, and here's what we think the opportunities are for you as a business to address them."

The other challenge, of course, is how to actually implement that video in the vehicle. Automakers have begun using the center navigation console as a video screen, with either a roof-mounted or seat-mounted screens to provide alternative means of delivering video to the rear seats. But, Ellis said, that doesn't have to be the case.

"It's a multi-step process, with the first one being whether that partnership happens [as] embedded or not," Ellis said. "One of the things I bring to the table is that I challenged the process that everything has to be embedded in the car. The question that has to be anticipated then is how does that service get delivered, and how does Ford deliver it if that's not embedded, but in still a manner that's safe. Those questions are currently ongoing."

"If you were to look at all the pieces, I think that all the pieces, plus or minus one generation, are going to be there, from the standpoint of being able to stream Hulu, for a carrier to provide data, and for a user to be able to bring a device like this into a vehicle to consume it," Ellis added. "I think what you're looking for there is a universal docking station, a device that is crash-worthy. The driver should have the ability to not be distracted, because there's four different videos going on at the same time. I think that's the place that we're going to spend a lot more time."