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Ford Announces Updated SYNC

Back in 2007, American manufacturer Ford was introducing the SYNC in-car voice activation system, making all Ford drivers happy they can feel a bit like Captain Kirk. Yet, the system was somewhat limited and understood only a limited amount of commands.

Now, in 2010, Ford announces the introduction of the next generation of SYNC, which will make its debut on the 2011 Edge crossover. The new system, which is at the core of MyFord Touch, provides 100 times more commands than the original.

“Ford is committed to making voice recognition the primary user interface inside of the car because it allows drivers to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” Jim Buczkowski, director of Ford electronics and electrical systems engineering said about the new system.

“The improvements we’ve made will make it easier for drivers to use and interact with it, even those customers that have never used voice recognition before.”

The new SYNC can understand a bundle of voice commands, including phone dialing (“call whoever'), commands related to destinations (“find a hotel'), or tuning of radio stations (“Alt-Nation”). SYNC can also perform changes to the car and its environment, like changing inside temperature.

“The power of the SYNC voice control system is its ability to understand and respond to more natural language commands – and the advanced adaptability of the speech recognition technology enables the system to train itself with each successive use,”
said Michael Thompson, general manager of Nuance Mobile, Ford's partner for the development of the system.

SYNC will also talk back using the Samantha voice, which has become less synthetic and more human.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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