Ford says ‘millions’ of its vehicles will run on Google’s Android from 2023

Ford is the latest automaker to outsource its vehicle operating systems to Google. The Dearborn, Mich.-Based company said it will use Google’s Android to power the infotainment systems of “millions” of its cars starting in 2023. That means Google’s voice-activated assistant, Google Maps and other automotive approved Android apps will be available. in Ford cars without requiring the use of an Android smartphone.

Android’s deep integration will allow drivers and passengers to use Google Assistant to change things like climate settings, and it will also allow live updates that can add new features or fix some maintenance issues, according to Ford. But iPhone users, don’t despair: Ford’s system will still be compatible with Apple CarPlay. And Ford will also continue to offer Amazon’s Alexa as an option.

Ford would not say which of its vehicles will benefit from the Android operating system from 2023, only the “millions” of vehicles of the Ford and Lincoln brands would have it. The vehicles will be available worldwide except China. But Ford won’t say whether it will use Google’s Android Automotive product, which is built into the vehicle natively. Instead, its use of Android would be “Ford and Lincoln only,” Ford vice president of strategy and partnerships David McClelland said on a conference call with reporters.

Additionally, Ford is signing a six-year partnership with Google to use the tech giant’s cloud as the preferred cloud provider for its connected vehicle services. And Ford and Google will create a new group, made up of employees from both companies, called Team Upshift, which will be responsible for finding other areas of innovation.

“We will leverage the talent and strengths of both companies to push the boundaries of Ford’s transformation, unlock personalized customer experiences and generate disruptive data-driven opportunities,” McClelland said in a Medium article. “This can include projects ranging from modernizing our factories to AI vision, developing new retail experiences when buying a vehicle, creating new ownership offerings based on data from connected vehicles, etc.

It’s a major coup for Google, which has been flexible in adding a number of major automakers to its stable of customers using Android in its vehicles. Ford is joining Volvo, General Motors and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance in reaching a deal with Google to use its software to power its infotainment services.

But it can also be a slippery slope. Initially, automakers seemed to want to keep big tech companies at bay to prevent them from tapping into the lucrative customer data streams entering and exiting their vehicles. But Ford believes that by leaving Google under the hood, it can likely sell more cars to customers who would prefer a more smartphone-like car experience than the software currently provided by the automaker.

It’s unclear where that leaves Ford’s Sync infotainment system. All of the automaker’s latest models, such as the recently released Mustang Mach-E, run on Sync 4 to power features like navigation, radio, and climate control settings. In a conference call with reporters, McClelland said Sync was a “differentiated brand” that worked in millions of vehicles, but it would not directly address the future of the operating system.

Ford shouldn’t have to ditch Sync entirely, given the flexibility offered by Google’s native Android Automotive system. This approach allows Google to do more of the heavy lifting on the software side, while giving automakers the freedom to design the operating system to suit their tastes. For example, the Android system built into the Polestar 2, which is made by Volvo and Geely, looks a lot like Volvo’s Sensus infotainment system.

There have been other major couples between automakers and tech companies in recent weeks. Microsoft and GM’s autonomous subsidiary Cruise recently announced that they will team up to accelerate the development of self-driving cars. And Apple is said to be in talks with Hyundai over a similar partnership.

It’s an interesting development in the relationship between the country’s oldest automakers and its largest tech company. Ford and Google were rumored to form a joint venture around autonomous vehicles in 2016, but it never came to fruition. While the JV never materialized, both companies kept things open and clear, given today’s news, never got lost.