Back in April, Ford’s cross-town rival, General Motors, shockingly announced that it would be ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity in its future EV models, instead opting to go with its own infotainment system developed in partnership with Google. However, Ford EVs won’t be following suit, as CEO Jim Farley has stated numerous times, and in fact, The Blue Oval continues to expand its available features pertaining to both. In fact, the Ford F-150 Lightning just added Apple Maps EV routing capability last October, and Farley recently hinted that Google Maps EV route planning was next on the automaker’s list. Now, at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google has announced that Ford EVs will be the first to receive a new charging info upgrade, too.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning will be the very first all-electric vehicles to get this feature, which will soon spread to other Android Auto compatible models. The feature is capable of sharing real-time battery information with Google Maps, which aims to make the act of driving an EV, in general, a bit simpler.
This new feature will enable Google Maps to give users an estimated battery level upon their arrival at their selected destination, as well as suggest charging stops along the way and estimate how long it will take to charge that specific vehicle at its current state of charge when it arrives.
Google is already beginning to roll out this new feature, which will enable Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners to send their planned trips from their smartphone – whether it be Android based or one running Apple’s iOS – directly to those vehicles using Google built-in, which should make the process of planning road trips and navigating much simpler and more seamless than before.
We’ll have more on this soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for non-stop Ford news coverage.
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