Ford SYNC On Its Way to Europe in the 2012 Focus

There’s a great preview of the new 2012 Ford Focus over at Crave, which features Ford’s SYNC infotainment system, powered by Windows Embedded Auto.

If you’re not aware of Ford SYNC, it’s Ford’s next generation in car entertainment and communication system, which includes in car 3G Wi-Fi (via USB dongle or smartphone tether via Bluetooth). It’s been available in the US for some time and now looks to be heading to Europe. 

It’s controlled via an 8” colour display that’s a world away from your current in-dash display, and is used to manage climate controls, mobile phone calls and contacts, satellite navigation and in car entertainment. You’ll also find a web browser with tabbed page navigation, Adobe Flash support and bookmarks.

With regard to music, you can play music from CDs (but who still does that, right?), smartphones, MP3 players and USB drives attached to one of two ports in the centre console. You’ll be able to hit up the cloud courtesy of a link to Spotify, as well as play video from YouTube and BBC iPlayer (when the car is stationary, of course).

Many of the in car controls are voice activated (even current Fords have an amazing voice recognition system) and according to Crave, you’ll be able to have text messages read out to you whilst on the move, with abbreviations and emoticons read out to you – “gf” becomes girlfriend and is translated as “happy smiley”.

The new Ford Focus with SYNC is expected to land in April next year.