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After first showing it on the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus, Ford is revealing more details about its latest infotainment system, called Digital Experience.
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Along with smartphone mirroring, the Google Play store allows owners to download apps like Spotify and Waze to the native infotainment system.
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The system also lets you watch YouTube or Amazon Prime Video while you’re stationary, as well as play video games with a Bluetooth-connected controller.
The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus debuted last spring with a large 48-inch screen that spans the width of the dashboard. But the dazzling display is only one component in a new infotainment system that promises to better connect customers with the digital services they are familiar with. Now Ford has revealed more details about how the new Android Automotive-based system, called “Digital Experience”, works and what to expect from the suspension in Ford and Lincoln vehicles this decade.
Many apps
The main objective of Ford’s new arrangement is to seamlessly integrate the customer’s electronic devices with their vehicle, turning the car into another connected device in the owner’s “digital ecosystem”. The company highlights a study that shows the average US household has 16 connected devices and that the average American spends more than an hour a day driving.
This easiest way to make customers feel at home is to incorporate popular apps into the native system. While users can still mirror their phone via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the Ford and Lincoln system also allows apps like Spotify and Waze to be downloaded directly into the system via the Google Play store. Once signed in, drivers can always access their accounts on these services even if their phone is not in the car. The system also comes preloaded with Google Maps as a primary navigation method.
While parked, the system will also allow owners to stream video through apps including YouTube and Amazon Prime Video on the lower touchscreen. We tested this out on a pre-production Nautilus at a media event by looking at the latest from Car and driver‘s YouTube channel, and the video loads quickly, with sound levels controlled by the same knobs and dials as the radio volume. The Google Play store even allows games to be downloaded, and we sampled the racing game Asphalt nitro 2 on a display unit using a Bluetooth-connected controller. Google Chrome will soon be joined by a built-in Vivaldi web browser, and Ford plans to add video conferencing apps as well.
Customizable Panorama Screen
On the Nautilus, the lower touchscreen controls what’s displayed on the 48-inch panoramic screen, said to be the highest resolution display ever offered on a Lincoln. The screen sits just below eye level, which Ford says keeps drivers’ eyes focused on the road while allowing them to quickly ingest critical information. The widescreen display is organized in three planes – “critical” information such as speed and BlueCruise status is located directly in front of the driver, while important “supportive” information, such as navigation, is in the middle, and “at-a-glance” information, such as weather and tire pressure, lives in front of the passenger seat.
The “at a glance” part of the panoramic screen consists of three spots for widgets, which can be swapped by dragging and dropping the various apps into each spot on the touch screen. In our hands-on experience with the display unit, we found the system to be responsive and intuitive. Only a few gadgets are currently available, but we expect the list to grow, with Ford hinting that video content and games could be included on the panoramic screen in the future. All but the most important information is removed from the panoramic screen with a “Calm” button. A demo version of Ford’s infotainment system at the media event featured the touchscreen controlling a smaller digital gauge cluster that sits behind the steering wheel.
Ford designed the system around voice activation, which the company says will help all customers — even those who don’t feel as comfortable navigating a touchscreen — access the functions they need. Google Assistant is the default, but Alexa is offered as an alternative for in-vehicle controls such as climate and navigation. When using CarPlay, Siri can activate related functions.
Ford’s view is that voice assistants are safer than tapping a screen while driving, and many pre-set needs will be taken care of through driver profiles that load preset preferences for apps, favorite destinations, and seat positions and mirrors when each driver enters the vehicle.
A more powerful system
The Ford and Lincoln Digital Experience is claimed to be the fastest system either brand has ever offered, with five times faster core processing and almost 14 times faster graphics processing. Ford drops four times the memory and eight times the storage compared to the previous Ford Sync 4 system. The system will have 5G wireless connectivity, an available Wi-Fi hotspot, and over-the-air software updates.
Although the system is based on the Android Automotive architecture, the automaker claims it is developing more of the software in-house to allow for faster updates. This is also benefited by moving from two separate modules for the gauge cluster and the containment system to one overarching module that controls the entire system.
The first vehicle to debut the new Digital Experience will be the 2024 Nautilus, which will also be the first vehicle to feature the full-width screen. Ford said that the panoramic display is exclusive to Lincoln at the moment, but we would not rule it out for high-end Ford vehicles in the future. Expect most Fords to do a simpler setup. The automaker said the first Ford vehicle with the new Digital Experience system will be up and running soon, which will give a better understanding of how the new system will present itself without the panoramic screen.
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