Falcon, Territory to get Ford's Sync2

FORD'S final Falcon and Territory will go out with a technical bang, becoming the first Blue Oval-badged model's in Australia to offer the company’s latest infotainment system, Sync2.

The new version will offer more flexibility than the original Sync system and will with an Australian English vocabulary and accent recognition.

While the company did not confirm that the system would be fitted to the locally-built models, a Ford spokesman said the Sync2 system would be available in Australia later this year.

The only model launches Ford has scheduled for later this year are the Falcon and Territory.

The decision to install the latest technology in the Falcon mirrors Holden's strategy of ensuring its latest VF Commodore is the techiest version ever produced.

Unfortunately, the Falcon will not be able to take advantage of some of the other technology unveiled at Ford’s Innovation for Millions design and technology presentation in Melbourne this week.

Next to the Sync2, the star turn was the self-parking software that can not only park a car in a parallel parking bay, but also in a perpendicular, nose-in parking bay.

However, a car must have electric power assisted steering for this system to work and both the Falcon and Territory have hydraulic power assist.

Ford also demonstrated its Active City Stop braking, which eliminates those nose to tail bumps that happen in stop-start traffic if a driver is temporarily distracted.

It also showed off its Pedestrian Recognition with Automatic Braking technology, which, along with Active City Stop, could easily be fitted to the new Falcon and Territory models.

The Sync2 system can now be operated in three different ways, with hard buttons, through the use of the touch-screen and by voice recognition.

The voice system now contains some shorthand commands like “I’m hungry” or “find a car park”, making it much simpler to enter commands into the system with just a touch of the voice button before speaking.

The “I’m hungry” command will bring up a list of local restaurants. The driver can then choose a restaurant, ring to make a reservation and get Sync2 to give driving directions to it.

Drivers can also alter the temperature of the air conditioning with simpler commands like “warmer”, or for more accuracy, a driver can dictate a particular temperature.

The Sync2 system features Bluetooth for hands-free telephone use and audio, two USB ports, an SD card slot and an auxiliary jack.

The eight-inch colour touch home screen is divided into four quadrants: telephone, navigation, entertainment and climate and touching a particular quadrant will bring up the selected function in full-screen mode.

Ford’s supervisor of multimedia systems, Adrian McGibbon, said the Sync2 system had been further streamlined by adding an advanced mode of giving commands as well as retaining the “novice” level.