In a First, Apple Maps Navigation To Be Embedded In Ford UEV Pickups (freep.com)
- Reference: 0184608488
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/23/1626218/in-a-first-apple-maps-navigation-to-be-embedded-in-ford-uev-pickups
- Source link: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2026/07/23/apple-maps-embedded-ford-electric-vehicles-pickup-trucks/91021384007/
> Ford CEO Jim Farley said the new EVs will redefine advanced technology as simple, useful, and at a price point that is attainable for most people. "We're proud to embed Apple Maps' navigation and mapping technology directly into our Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, giving customers the ultimate navigation experience alongside our Ford app, a full suite of software, and next-generation BlueCruise, all enabled by a new zonal architecture," Farley said in a statement. "Apple Maps has delivered a world-class product, and we're honored to be among the first to embed it directly into a vehicle, helping define intuitive, capable driving."
>
> In a [2]joint statement , Apple and Ford said the integration will deliver a "beautiful and easy-to-use navigation experience powered by Apple Maps directly to the vehicle's displays. Road-level Maps information will also enable Ford's Latitude AI team to build a seamless hands-free driving experience." Ford said it will use that road information to develop its next-generation BlueCruise hands-free highway driving capability. Also, by leveraging Apple's new MapKit for Automotive SDK, Ford's UEV Platform will offer drivers turn-by-turn directions using natural language, real-time traffic information, intuitive search and routing options for the best route. The system will give drivers EV routing functionality to help drivers with the warming and cooling process of the vehicle's battery before driving or fast-charging.
[1] https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2026/07/23/apple-maps-embedded-ford-electric-vehicles-pickup-trucks/91021384007/
[2] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/07/apple-maps-to-power-navigation-experience-for-ford-uev-platform/
Will I still be able to use alternatives? (Score:4, Interesting)
Can I use Android Auto to use my preferred navigation software?
Re: (Score:2)
If this is like the Google Built In that other car manufacturers (GM, Mazda) are using then, no, it won't support screen mirroring, but it will link up with any phone for sharing normal bluetooth stuff. It does make the car more smart device like on its own but is also a way to sell car connectivity packages. The Google stuff at least works ok without the OnStar nonsense, hopefully this Apple competitor will also.
updates (Score:2)
Will there be updates? Will the updates be free? How complicated will it be to install an update?
This is a giant waste. I don't want this as part of my car. My current car already has built in navigation. I never use it; I use android auto which is vastly better.
suck? (Score:2)
Hasn't Apple maps always sucked?
Re: (Score:2)
> Hasn't Apple maps always sucked?
It's still not my favorite, but I think they've fixed most of the issues where it was telling people to drive into lakes.
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> I think they've fixed most of the issues where it was telling people to drive into lakes.
Seems like a useful feature. Especially for an EV.
Re: (Score:2)
>> I think they've fixed most of the issues where it was telling people to drive into lakes.
> Seems like a useful feature. Especially for an EV.
Won't that electrocute the fish?
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After the third time that Apple Maps directed us off the route to take an utterly unnecessary loop through some residential neighborhood we gave up on it. We just use Google Maps all the time, even on my wife's iToy.
I hope these Apple enabled Fords are amphibious (Score:3)
[1]https://kiss951.com/2023/07/05... [kiss951.com]
[1] https://kiss951.com/2023/07/05/a-woman-followed-her-gps-into-a-harbor/
Re: (Score:1)
Remember when Apple Maps kept telling hundreds of the zombie dumbfuck cult members to drive down an airport runway? That was my favorite story on Slashdot about this trash app.
Re: (Score:1)
It is 100% rational. They're stuck up, elitist, wannabe-rich assholes who only care about show-off culture and image, just like Apple had targeted from 2000 to 2010. They got exactly what they marketed to. Also, playing "find the Apple cult member" in the comment section is the easiest game known to mankind. I think I found one, actually.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you updated your old Android phone lately? My 10 year old iPhone still gets security patches.
Re: (Score:2)
Congrats. I wouldn't want a 10 yr old smartphone anyway. Might as well just downgrade to a dumbphone that doesn't even need security patches.
Re: I hope these Apple enabled Fords are amphibio (Score:2)
Whenever you paint a group of millions with a single brush, you're already hopelessly lost. But I can tell two things from your posts. You aren't rational, and you're willing to talk the longest, believing that doing so means you win. So good luck to you.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, who knew a brand new mapping software would have a one in a billion bug.
Re: I hope these Apple enabled Fords are amphibiou (Score:2)
My favorite is the times it's told people to make a right angle turn off the side of a bridge. That's not an instruction very likely to cause harm because there's not an exit there for some idiot to take, but it's especially hilarious because there's no excuse for that.
Disease (Score:1)
Don't you hate it when those Apple fanboy cult member morons invade a company and start suggesting bullshit like this? Should have stomped them out before they got a foothold. If you're not familiar, Apple Maps is 2nd rate garbage based on Magellan's database. And now the vehicle won't full function without an expensive data connection. Yeah, that's what I wanted; a car that has to be 2nd cell phone on my plan when I have my existing phone on my 100% of the time that I'm driving.
Just kidding, it's usually
Re: (Score:2)
So people who live outside urban areas where connections are more or less reliable shouldn't buy one? Fine by me, I wouldn't buy a Ford anyway, much less one with Apple garbage preinstalled.
How many people will drive into a swamp or stream? (Score:2)
Remember how bad it was when Apple Maps first came out? Putting it INTO the vehicle as a default is a really really bad idea.
So unnecessary (Score:2)
I don't know anyone that doesn't have a decent phone these days, with nice map options and data plans. Screens are bigger than ever and resolution is great. Just put 3 x 6 inch pad (with magnet for charging), or just flat area for suction cup. USB port in proximity for power. No syncing, no fiddling, no updating (beyond what you do for your phone anyway)
No brainer.
Re: (Score:2)
It sounds like you want a [1]Slate truck. [slate.auto], it is for those that want functional and not much else.
[1] https://www.slate.auto/
Re: (Score:2)
Screens have been mandatory to comply with the law requiring a back-up camera, so it's a huge waste if they don't also make it available for infotainment functionality as well. My previous vehicle (a '19 Nissan Versa) was like that - it had this ginormous screen in the dash that displayed either the back-up camera feed or the radio and was completely useless otherwise.
I'd never been able to find a phone mount that I was satisfied with, either. They all get in the way or are too janky and drop your phone (
Unanswered questions... (Score:2)
So there's not any detail on whether this means iOS will be running or if this 'MapKit' supports another platform.
Apple did go out of their way to say *Carplay* would be supported, but no one has mentioned whether android auto will be supported.
This seems like a broadly fine concept, so long as they didn't toss Android Auto support to get this partnership with Apple going. The built in nav was, at it's best, never better than google maps and, I presume, Apple.
I dunno, dude... (Score:2)
As recently as two weeks ago I inadvertently launched Apple Maps instead of Google, and it promptly instructed me to turn the wrong way down a one way. This was in the downtown core of a major city, and the street has been one way for at least five years. And if the destination is the least bit complicated by service roads and medians it ties itself in knots trying to plot a route. In my experience they're still way behind.
What Do Car Manufacturers Get? (Score:2)
We want to connect whatever phone we choose this week to the car's screen. Next week, we may want to use a new app or a whole new phone. This is almost entirely solved by Car Play and Android Auto. There is no need for a car to have a built in and out of date map ever again.
We've made this clear, and the car manufacturers know full fucking well, that the consumer wants to connect their phone to the car's screen. The consumer does NOT want maps, phones, voice control, or everything else built into the car an
Re: (Score:2)
It's going to be a subscription based service so they can extract more money.
Re: (Score:2)
> what is the advantage to the car manufacturers
It's likely mostly to the advantage of certain executives who were in the know and were able to play the stock market with the price of AAPL when the announcement was made. That's the true interest of executives now, not benefit for the company or the customer, only for themselves.
Waiter? I'll have what he's smoking. (Score:2)
> Ford CEO Jim Farley said the new EVs will redefine advanced technology as simple, useful, and at a price point that is attainable for most people..
This, coming from the American auto maker who can't sell shit at their current MSRP+FU pricing model.
This, coming from an auto-making industry who just took a financial fucking bath on EV adoption, and is reverting backwards in many ways because of it.
Whatever the hell this guy is smoking, should either be illegal or free. I'll take two.
Re: (Score:2)
> This, coming from an auto-making industry who just took a financial fucking bath on EV adoption, and is reverting backwards in many ways because of it.
To be fair though, the auto industry was just trying to roll with the political tides. That was never going to end well when one political party thinks EVs are the second coming of Jesus, the other has a raging hate boner for them, and the American public keeps flip-flopping between the two of them every 4 years for every election cycle since Obama.
And this is how they miss their $30k price point (Score:2)
Instead of trying to deliver a product under the price point, they start adding things that require external licensing and ongoing costs. Then they try to hide the price by charging exorbitant fees like 'delivery'.
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Have you seen what new pickup trucks are selling for these days? Missing the $30k price point really isn't the dealbreaker. What is, for the typical truck buying demographic, is the fact that it doesn't run on gas.
Hell, my retired father owns a pickup truck. He rarely hauls anything in the bed, literally never uses it for towing. I told him his is the perfect use case for getting one that's electric next time he wants something new, since he's been having no end of mechanical problems with his last few
Re: (Score:2)
IIRC, he had a Nissan, then a Toyota, and now I think another Nissan. Nissans being unreliable I can understand, but I was kind of surprised when the Toyota started giving him grief.
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I would would be, too. My 2002 Tacoma hasn't had an issue in 24 years except that the door locks don't work most of the time now. (Since I always leave it unlocked that's not an issue. If they want to steal the change in the ash tray I prefer they not break the window to do it.) I beat the crap out of it, too.
Re: (Score:3)
You're engaged in the same kind of thinking the automakers are, and it's why they are struggling. Think less about the people currently buying trucks and more about the people who would be buying a truck if it didn't cost $70k.
It's about making a market, not chasing a market. Slate seems to have understood this. Ford seems to again be chasing, only caring about that gap in their lineup since Slate started threatening them.
A similar disease affects many markets in the US, but housing and automotive are obvio
Who? (Score:2)
> Slate seems to have understood this.
Who?
> Ford seems to again be chasing
The Ford F-Series has been the top selling vehicle, in the U.S., EVERY year for 20 years or more.
What the ever-loving-fuck are you talking about "chasing"?
Re: (Score:2)
>> Ford seems to again be chasing
> The Ford F-Series has been the top selling vehicle, in the U.S., EVERY year for 20 years or more.
> What the ever-loving-fuck are you talking about "chasing"?
And the EV version sold poorly compared to the traditional F-150 so that is a lesson too.
But they do have the Maverick for people who want smaller trucks. And you can get a hybrid, which seems much more popular than full BEVs also.
Re: (Score:2)
Slate [1]https://www.slate.auto/en [slate.auto]
The exact thing that everyone on slashdot claims to want. A minimal EV with no nanny or phone home features.
Ford convinced people that spending Mercedes money on a truck is a normal thing. The king ranch has been over $100k for quite a while now.
[1] https://www.slate.auto/en
LOL! (Score:2)
Thanks for the link. I had never heard of them before.
But, you've made me burst out laughing that anyone would present a soon-to-fail Kickstarter project as a leader and claim that the best selling vehicle for 20 years is "chasing" it. LOL!
I had no idea that King Ranch was so expensive. It's ridiculous. But, as many of them that I see on the road, there's an awful lot of people with $100k to burn.
Re: (Score:2)
> The exact thing that everyone on slashdot claims to want. A minimal EV with no nanny or phone home features.
I just wish they would start selling the damn thing already so people can hurry up and not buy it.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm torn between the SLATE and my old faithful standby. I have a 1966 and a 2015 F150. I've had F150's since the 90's. The only non-Ford pickup I owned was a Ranger.
Ford can't get away with not having a massive screen in the middle of the dash anymore. I think they should put a screen there, but make it something you can customize. Is that too hard? Building a version of Android that doesn't suck seems to be a hard ask these days. Most of the Android OS devices I have SUCK and using them in a car would be a
Re: (Score:2)
There are just some people who are too stuck in their ways to ever own an EV.
There are those people who don't want to ask their vehicle for permission before they can drive it. They want to turn the key and go, not be tied to an app or some nebulous company who can disable the vehicle they bought on a whim
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Tbf, almost the entirety of the truck driving demographic is made up of morons and bad drivers.
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After the F-150 Lightning debacle, I think they should focus on delivering an electric truck that works at all. Like it drives and turns on correctly. The last one did not do that.
So embedding licensed 2nd rate garbage used by clueless Apple customers who are too stupid to download Google Maps was obviously a step in the right direction. It's basically the Safari of the maps world.