Ford to take Sync system global in 19 languages
updated 12:35 pm EST, Mon February 28, 2011
Ford to expand Sync language support to 19
Ford will take the opportunity at the CeBIT show in Germany on Tuesday to release its Sync in-car infotainment system globally, with voice recognition support for 19 languages. The carmaker has worked with Nuance Communications, its partner in the voice recognition tech for the system, to recognize 10,000 voice commands in 19 languages. This includes abbreviations for text messaging.
The first vehicle to get Sync outside of North America will be the European 2012 Focus due out next year. The newly introduced languages include US, Australian and UK forms of English, European and US Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Korean, European and Canadian French, European and Brazilian Portugese, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Japanese.
When it originally launched, Sync support only three languages and the expansion is billed to be the largest in the industry.
The Sync-equipped Ford cars will have the native language preloaded onto their hard drive on the assembly line over Wi-Fi. Putting all the languages into one car would require over 90 different hardware modules, the automaker said.
