Ford Cars to feature Windows

In what might be the start of an exciting technological future for cars and trucks, Ford Motor Co. and software giant Microsoft Corp. are expected to jointly announce soon that new Windows Automotive software soon will be available in Ford vehicles.

The new technology (dubbed "Sync") will finally bring together two industries that have long been expected to cross paths, allowing consumers to use their vehicles as computers in key ways, such as hands-free cell phone calls or downloading music or receiving e-mail.

Ford and Microsoft are expected to reveal the project during media days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which begins Jan. 7, and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens to the press a day earlier.

Microsoft officials have acknowledged a joint announcement will be made during the shows, but Ford officials refused to comment publicly on the reports.

Several Web sites have been reporting about the expected announcement in recent days.

The Wall Street Journal published a report Friday about the companies' plans, as well, saying the technology will debut next year as an option on at least two Ford models that are to be freshened next year, the Focus and Five Hundred. Sync will be available on all Ford models starting in 2008 and will be phased in to Lincoln and Mercury models later.

According to a concept Hummer H2 vehicle shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2004, the Microsoft technology works through a computer located on the vehicle that runs Windows Auto software. The computer uses Bluetooth to connect wirelessly with a mobile phone in the car, which in turn connects to the Internet. Motorists communicate with the system through a microphone embedded in the roof of the car.

On Dec. 12, Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, was asked why Bluetooth technology was not available on important new models, such as the Ford Edge, and he hinted that something better was coming.

"I think you'll see us ... getting a lot more aggressive on those types of technologies," he told a small group of journalists who were reviewing the company's still-secret new products in Detroit.

Microsoft already has been working with Fiat, which does not sell vehicles in North America, to use Windows Automotive software in cars -- an infotainment project that was unveiled at the 2006 Geneva auto show and labeled "Blue&Me."