The trend toward making car owners feel like they’re at a drive-in theater has been going on for years, best exemplified by Tesla, whose Model 3 sedan has a 15-inch center screen that controls many functions that used to require buttons. In the smartphone era, people have been trained to expect screens that are not just big but regularly updated and easy to use. (Bringing a bazooka to this knife fight is Chinese electric-car startup Byton, whose M-Byte SUV will come with a four-foot screen.)
“We know the benchmark is cellphones,” says Gary Jablonski, the chief engineer who runs Ford’s infotainment efforts. That’s why, along with screens that stretch farther, Ford is also launching Sync 4. The latest generation of its infotainment system will offer the kinds of features you’ve come to expect from the computer in your pocket. The cloud-connected navigation system will liberate users from constrained libraries of points of interest, allowing them to search the map for things like their doctor’s office. Traffic data will be more detailed and up to date.
This video has the Byton with the massive display
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