Review: Ford's SYNC 4 Brings Wireless CarPlay to the 2021 F-150

[entropys]

I would expect you can turn the split screen off and have CarPlay across the whole screen.
it is just a matter of diving into the set up menus to find the toggle.
10.8 inch screen on my 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe gives you the option of a split screen or not, so I would expect Ford does too.
first month or so I kept the split screen so I could control the radio, use the car’s Sat Nav (don’t know why I did that) etc. then I found the toggle in the set up menu and a switched to full screen. I just prefer just using the carplay screen stretched across that lovely acreage of a monitor, and don’t really feel the need to switch back to split screen, but YMMV.

it’s good to have the choice.

 

[Romey-Rome]

Sync is gross.

 

[1262385]

In these cases Ford could create a CarPlay app that controls things in the car, i.e. A/C, radio stations, etc. it could even support the Dashboard view and change channels and temp there.

I think you'd have to see some industry standardization on an interface that would allow CarPlay or Android Audio to offer controls of the car's built-in functions. As it stands, CarPlay mirrors (for lack of a better term) your iPhone's interface onto the radio. You have some limited functionality of iOS functions from the car's controls (volume up/down, next/previous track, maybe even triggering the voice activation), but I don't know of any automaker that allows the phone to access car functions.

 

[gaximus]

I think you'd have to see some industry standardization on an interface that would allow CarPlay or Android Audio to offer controls of the car's built-in functions. As it stands, CarPlay mirrors (for lack of a better term) your iPhone's interface onto the radio. You have some limited functionality of iOS functions from the car's controls (volume up/down, next/previous track, maybe even triggering the voice activation), but I don't know of any automaker that allows the phone to access car functions.

It could all be done with bluetooth, but that would be a lot of work for the manufacture. There are a lot of limitations, to CarPlay right now, hopefully they will get those fixed. I'd love to have my GoPro mounted and see the image on my CarPlay when I go off-roading.

 

[jerryk]

I will wait for the F-150 Lightning instead. Went all EV 3 years ago and never going back.

 

[EncomCTO]

I hate it so much when manufactures don't let the CarPlay interface use the entire display size. it makes zero sense. Go learn from BMW and how they do it.

I think it depends how much that infotainment actually controls on the car. If it's more than Nav and Music, you have to have a bottom tab bar to navigate through functions. It might be nice to have a button to full size it, but I'd rather have the option than have a manufacture choose one or the other. Also, I like on this how you can have CarPlay up, but still have the radio controls up. I frequently have Google Maps up but I'm listening to the Sirius XM tuner. The majority of my screen is CarPlay (minus the bottom row of car specific buttons), and as a result I can't see both at the same time. Sync4 gets this right based on the images provided in the article.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

I’d love to have an F150, but they are too big for our roads in the UK. Hopefully the 2022 Ranger is a smaller version of it.

 

[1262385]

It could all be done with bluetooth, but that would be a lot of work for the manufacture. There are a lot of limitations, to CarPlay right now, hopefully they will get those fixed. I'd love to have my GoPro mounted and see the image on my CarPlay when I go off-roading.

I don’t think it could. Unless something has dramatically changed, Wireless CarPlay uses Bluetooth for the initial connection/handshake, and then switches to the car’s wireless access point. I believe the Bluetooth connection then drops, as data is transmitted over WiFi.

I’m not suggesting that it couldn’t be done, but I don’t think there’s a common middleware (or whatever the appropriate term is) or security architecture to facilitate this kind of interactivity with the native functionality. Volvo’s own On Call app doesn’t really allow me to do much more than start the car remotely.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

I believe the answer to most of these questions is that Microsoft makes the Ford sync software. Enough said. Luckily Ford has stated that Google will be the base of futures generations. I hate Google but Microsoft just lacks the talent to make things look good and the vision to really understand what people want. Now if Google uses this this as a way to track or provide ads in any way, it will be ripped out of my truck in a heart beat so Ford better be very careful with this. Oh and it better retain wireless Car Play.

Microsoft has not made the Sync system for Ford for quite a while. I believe that Sync 3 and now Sync 4 are both QNX (which is what most car infotainment systems are).

 

[TheByteSmasher]

I know I’m late to the party, but the 12” instrument screen does support and shoot Apple Maps directions, as does the small side panel on the main screen in case you want xm on the main screen