Ford First to Offer Mappo Through SYNC 3, SYNC 4
Photo: Ford
These days, the question is what can’t you do in your vehicle? If you’ve got a Ford with SYNC 3 or new SYNC 4, you can now do even more than before thanks to Mappo. Mappo is a new in-vehicle app that recommends stuff like books, movies, and historical sites — and Ford is the first to bring it to ya.
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The way Ford Motor Company global director of enterprise connectivity Stuart Taylor tells it, Mappo is a great tool for quickly accessing 30,000 cultural references when you’re out and about. It might also enable mansplaining in some scenarios, which is a less enjoyable thing.
“People love telling their friends about interesting places in books, movies, and music — now they can share these passions with the world through Mappo,” said Taylor. “Mappo makes long drives or brief escapes richer experiences, whether people stay inside their vehicle or step out to experience a landmark.”
Using voice commands, you can get info on points of interest in a dozen major cities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The search function lets you check out historical facts, learn info about books and movies set in or about the area, and even chart a trip that will bring you across noteworthy locations. If you’re in Detroit, for example, you can pick from routes that will carry you past Motor City manufacturing sites and key Ford locales.
Like Waze, Mappo also encourages users to help grow the platform. Mappo users can upload information relative to local sites, helping enrich the experience for future visitors. If your vehicle has navigation and SYNC AppLink, you can even use Mappo to create your own route to connect users to local points of interest.
Ford touts success of Tel Aviv Research Center
Photo: Ford
Mappo is an outfit based in Tel Aviv, and Ford thus hails it as a victory for its Ford Research Center in Israel. The FRC opened in Tel Aviv in 2019 as a means to tap into the country’s burgeoning tech talent pool.
“Through the strong presence of the Ford Research Center in Israel, we have been working with local companies and partners in Israel’s tech community to advance innovations and push our research and engineering efforts forward,” said Boaz Hartal, technical director of the Ford Research Center in Israel.
Mappo was the winner of the 2018 Ford MakeItDriveable competition.
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Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.