Ford is making the vast majority of its commercial vehicles connected as standard to help fleet operators maximise uptime.
The FordPass Connect modem will now be fitted as standard across the seven core products in Ford’s commercial vehicle line-up, including Ford Transit, Transit Custom and Ranger.
FordPass Connect connected services, which enable a range of remote productivity and convenience features via the FordPass Pro smartphone app, have now been made complimentary for owners across Europe.
FordPass Connect has also enabled over-the-air (OTA) software updates to keep commercial vehicles current with new technology by wirelessly delivering new features.
Guard Mode, a new security system accessed through the FordPass Pro app, will be the first new feature to be activated by an OTA update.
This heightened-security mode will – when it becomes available later in 2020 – monitor commercial vehicles in real time, alerting owners of any potential breaches in their security.
“Connectivity is the cornerstone of our mission to deliver smart vehicles for a smart world. We recently produced our 100,000th connected commercial vehicle, and expect to deliver our millionth within the next three years,” said Mark Harvey, director, Commercial Vehicle Mobility, Ford of Europe.
“We are leading the way with a wealth of innovative new connected vehicle solutions designed to help our customers thrive – no matter how tough the road ahead.”
To further support business customers, Ford partners with market-leading online services to provide access to productivity enhancing applications while on the move. Ford’s SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system with AppLink enables drivers to safely and conveniently interact with smartphone apps using the large in-vehicle touch display and intuitive voice commands.
Alongside support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, SYNC 3 with AppLink allows supported smartphone apps to offer a more integrated in-vehicle experience for Ford commercial vehicle users, it says.
SYNC 3 now enables wireless smartphone connectivity for AppLink apps using Bluetooth. Existing AppLink partners include popular navigation services such as what3words, Waze and Sygic Truck Navigation, while Cisco Webex helps drivers stay connected to colleagues and clients wherever they are.
The latest partner to join the AppLink family is Braintoss, a productivity app that helps drivers organise their thoughts on the move, with features including speech-to-text transcriptions that can be sent directly to an email inbox or a task manager app.
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Gareth has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist having started his career in local newspapers in the 1990s. Prior to joining Fleet News in 2008, he worked in the public sector as a media advisor and is currently news editor at Fleet News.
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