
Rather than improving driving safety, My Touch actually degrades it by forcing eyes off the road.
Ford Motor Company will beta test new software designed to ease myriad consumer complaints about the My Ford Touch infotainment system, which caused Ford and Lincoln vehicles to sink to below average in Consumer Reports quality ratings.
Ford’s overall reliability rank among 28 major car makes slipped from the 10th to the 20th spot this year—the biggest drop for any major nameplate in Consumer Reports 2011 Annual Auto Survey. The badly needed software upgrade is coming for 2013 models – and to owners of existing My Ford Touch equipped vehicles. (See Chrysler Up, GM Sideways, Ford Down in Consumer Reports Annual Reliability Survey Revealed Today at APA in Detroit)
About 1,000 beta-testers have been chosen at random from the Ford management lease vehicle population in Southeast Michigan. Because the upgrade involves software, no vehicle hardware maintenance is required. Instead, a USB flash drive loaded with the necessary software to complete the upgrade will be sent to testers.
It begs the question why wasn’t My Touch beta tested the first time, unless it was and this is just a different group of Ford employees?
Associated with My Touch is My Sync, a voice-recognition system designed to move control of vehicle entertainment, climate, navigation and communication from fingers to voice command. In theory, it is intended to keep driver attention undistracted from the road ahead.
In practice and in combination with the ill-executed My Touch, there is increased necessity to take eyes from the road to the center-stack touch screen for manual control of functions. Indeed, there are something over 400 voice commands listed in the Owner’s Manual. Who could ever remember even a fraction of those? Rather than improving operational safety, the My Touch monster actually degrades it.
For a real world look about the My Touch quality and safety issue, see FrankenFord Monster Loose In “Deerbern” Terrorizing Peasants and Threatening Public Safety On the Roads.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.