This article is published in cooperation with Time.com. The original version can be found here.
Ford Motor Company won’t make a self-driving car until the company is ready to provide an experience that “satisfies customers in a profound way,” CEO Mark Fields told TIME Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Watch more of Mark Fields at CES from Coins2Day’s video team:
Fields’ comments put Ford at odds with several of its competitors, which have increasingly used the annual technology confab to showcase the latest in automated driving technology. Earlier in the week, Audi successfully navigated what it calls a “piloted vehicle” from San Francisco to Sin City on highways without input from a human driver. BMW is showcasing a smartwatch app that lets users hail their car from a parking garage automatically. And Volkswagen has technology that learns drivers’ parking habits, such as pulling into the same driveway every night.
Fields, however, said Ford (F) isn’t interested in making a “marketing claim” of being the first to make an automated car if that means the vehicle isn’t accessible to a wide range of consumers. Instead, Ford is focused on bringing more semi-autonomous features to its more affordable models, like the parallel parking assist feature that Ford has included in some vehicles for years.
Ford is spending the week showing off its revamped in-car infotainment system, Sync 3. Sync, which lets drivers and passengers control music and temperature, look up directions and more, is getting better at understanding normal human speech, the company claims. Whereas drivers might have previously had to say “P.F. Chang’s Chinese Bistro” to chart a course to dinner, now a simple “P.F. Chang’s” should work, Ford says.
Sync is a big selling point for Ford. Drivers increasingly care more about in-car technology than things like horsepower or handling, according to a 2013 survey from research firm Accenture. And Fields says a majority of Ford customers reported it was a major factor in their car-buying decision.
The revamped Sync, which should find its way into some Ford models by early 2016, is launching just as Silicon Valley firms are making a play for control of the dashboard. Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto both do much the same thing: turn a car’s display screen into an extension of the phone’s interface. On the show floor, both services appeared to make marked improvements over what most consumers may have gotten used to over the past few years.
Nearly 30 automakers—including Ford—are signed on as CarPlay and Android Auto partners. When asked about any potential tension, Ford Vice President of Global Product Development Raj Nair downplayed the idea that Ford might be worried about Silicon Valley firms taking over their cars’ dashboards—and access to valuable consumer data with them. “It’s about giving [consumers] the choice,” Nair said.
