{"id":469,"date":"2011-11-07T07:53:17","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T13:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2011-11-07T07:53:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T13:53:17","slug":"wanted-ford-upgrade-thumb-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=469","title":{"rendered":"WANTED: Ford upgrade thumb drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wait, what?<\/p>\n

So here’s the deal. From 1999 to 2003, I used to install desktop computers in cars as a hobby. In case you don’t remember, GPS systems back in 99 cost about $4,000. I was able to install a system that did GPS, DVD, wireless internet (at blazing 14.4k speed!), and this new fangled audio format called “MP3” for about $1500. If you just wanted audio, it was about $500. Fun times, fun times.<\/p>\n

The then-small enthusiast community at MP3Car.com<\/a> (now a commercial site that happens to have a forum) would often fantasize about one of the industry players getting involved and removing us from the equation. Really, it’s a serious PITA to make your own dashboard to fit a 7″LCD touchscreen and even if you did get everything to work, it was still buggy as hell and took a LOT of time to get right.<\/p>\n

When Ford and MicroSoft came out with Sync<\/a> a couple of years ago, I remember thinking “Hey, they’re finally starting to catch up!” Last year, the pair introduced the latest version, Sync with MyFord Touch. Essentially Sync was voice-activated controls, and MyFord Touch adds a touchscreen and integration with smartphones.<\/p>\n

COOL!<\/p>\n

Except…<\/p>\n

It seems Ford has some of the same problems I did as an enthusiast. It’s buggy, it crashes, doesn’t recognize commands, and in general is providing a poor user experience. So they are sending out upgrades via usb thumb drive.<\/p>\n

You know what that means, right? If it’s possible to use the USB ports on the car to reprogram the system, it’s probably<\/I> possible to run custom firmware as well. That’s hot.<\/p>\n

Now, obviously I’m not going to go out and buy a new car just so I can get this technology. That’s not my style.<\/a> I am<\/i> interested in the protocols they use to do the upgrade.<\/p>\n

So, if one of my dear readers could send me this thumbdrive after they’re done with it, I’d be mighty grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wait, what? So here’s the deal. From 1999 to 2003, I used to install desktop computers in cars as a hobby. In case you don’t remember, GPS systems back in 99 cost about $4,000. I was able to install a system that did GPS, DVD, wireless internet (at blazing 14.4k speed!), and this new fangled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}