The new system will make its debut on the 2013 Ford Escape, Flex and Taurus. Current owners will be happy to hear that Ford plans to send them a USB stick with the software upgrade by early next year. This upgrade will be free and installing it will be as easy as plugging the USB driver into the car and waiting for the install to finish.

I got a chance to test the new system out during a trip to Ford’s headquarter in Dearborn, MI last week (see disclosure below).

Driven to Distraction: MyFord Touch 1.0

With SYNC, Sync Applink and MyFord Touch, Ford was at the forefront of the auto industry to bring voice recognition, touch screens, apps and connectivity to its cars at a time when most of these features were only available in luxury cars. At the same time, though, while these new systems helped to drive sales, the company’s reputation has suffered somewhat over the last year or so as these advanced systems turned out to be somewhat too complex, distracting and cumbersome for many drivers.

Smarter User Interface

As Ford user interface design engineer Jennifer Brace told me last week, Ford conducted a number of user clinics with current MyFord Touch owners over the course of the last year and tried to address their main concerns with this update.

The new interface does away with most of the clutter that made the old one hard to use. While it keeps the same basic layout with four quadrants of the screen (Entertainment, Climate, Navigation and Phone), every single screen has been redesigned by Ford’s engineers to make using the system more intuitive. The whole system now features simpler graphics, larger fonts and just focuses on providing more glancable information to the driver without unnecessary distractions.

Other design upgrades include more obviously pressable buttons, a move towards a more standard icon set (think magnifying glasses for zooming in and out and a gear icon for changing your settings etc.), and more 3D landmarks in the maps app as well as easier to read street names.

Faster

Besides sprucing up the interface, Ford’s engineers also worked on making the whole experience faster while keeping the same hardware. Indeed, as Ford told me, the 2013 model year cars the updated system will make its debut on will actually feature the exact same hardware as the old models (partly in order to ensure compatibility for current owners). The speed updates – which are quite significant when you see the old and new software side-by-side – are solely based on optimizing the software.

The video blow explains the update and new features in more detail:

Disclosure: Ford provided this author with transportation to its Dearborn, MI headquarters, as well as lodging and meals.

CDs, of course, have not exactly been big sellers over the last few years, as more and more consumers have shifted to MP3s, so phasing out in-car CD players only makes sense in the long run. Ford’s Connelly believes her company will continue to offer CD players in markets where there is demand, but as her colleague Ralf Brosig also told AM Online, Ford expects to see all-digital in-car entertainment systems in the near future.

Next Wave: Cloud-Connected Cars

Ford has been among the leaders when it comes to bringing digital entertainment options to cars, and has added USB connectivity and SD card ports to its latest MyFord Touch systems.

Some of Ford’s in-car entertainment systems are also connected to the cloud (though drivers have to bring their own connectivity in the form of a smartphone to their Fords) and allow users to play music through Pandora or Stitcher. More of this connectivity will likely come to more cars in the near future and will maybe even one day make USB and AUX ports obsolete, too.

On the invitation of Ford (see disclaimer below), I just spent three days at the “Forward with Ford” conference in Detroit, drove a few of the company’s cars with these systems and talked to some of the engineers behind MyFord Touch and the Nuance voice recognition system that powers many of these features.

For Ford, this ranking must be especially aggravating, given that the company has not just focused greatly on making these technologies affordable, but also on stepping up its quality control in general (as reflected by last year’s ranking). Indeed, it’s not the actual quality of the vehicles that brought the ranking down, but the problems drivers faced with the technology in their cars.

The feeling I got from talking to the teams behind these products is that they are quite aware of the user interface problems these current systems have. Indeed, Ford just started a new program a few weeks ago that allows new owners to get training in how to use their new MyFord Touch and SYNC systems. Ideally, these tools would be so easy to operate that users/drivers wouldn’t need this training, but for the time being, this is definitely a step in the right direction. It’s also worth noting that many of the functions of the MyFord Touch and SYNC systems can be access through voice commands.

It’s a Computer, So Fixing these Problems Shouldn’t be Too Hard

No doubt, however, these systems will improve quickly. One thing to remember for those of us in the Internet world is that the lead time between designing a car and putting it into production is measured in years and not weeks. When BMW released its ill-designed new iDrive interface, it faced a similar backlash, though it took the German automaker a few years to correct these issues. From what I’ve seen from Ford, I think the company will react much faster than this, especially given that existing MyFord Touch and SYNC installs can be updated relatively easily.

Disclaimer: Ford provided transportation and lodging for my recent trip to Detroit.

Image credit: Dave_7