Ford integrates Waze for SA motorists

For owners of Ford SYNC 3-equipped vehicles, this allows easier access to features including finding the quickest traffic routes and reporting traffic accidents.

To use, customers simply connect their Waze-equipped phone to the USB port of their Ford vehicle, select the Waze app on the SYNC app drawer, and view the service as it is projected onto the vehicle's touch screen. With Ford SYNC 3, users can now conveniently access the app's features on a larger display and direct select feature functionality by voice command through the cars built-in speakers and microphone system.

"We are excited to finally be able to enhance the Waze experience for our customers in South Africa, with Ford SYNC 3 through AppLink" says Doreen Mashinini, general manager of marketing at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.

"With Waze, our customers get the benefits they're accustomed to with the added luxury of experiencing them on a bigger screen," she says.

In addition to the ability to report on heavy traffic and accidents, Ford's integration of Waze includes recent app updates such as talk to Waze, which lets you control the app via voice command.

To deliver optimal driving directions and traffic updates, Waze uses crowdsourcing to gather information about road conditions from all of its users. People simply type in their destination and drive with the app open to contribute data to Waze's community of users. At the same time, people can take a more active role by sharing reports from the road, including notifying the community of accidents, hazards or route changes that were previously unknown.

For more, go to www.ford.co.za/technology/sync for complete software update instructions