Toyota has recently announced that they have entered into an agreement with Ford to use SmartDeviceLink, an open-source infotainment platform, as their only in-car smartphone connectivity solution for their upcoming vehicles.
This news will come as a deal breaker for Toyota fans hoping to have CarPlay in their next new vehicle, with many already showing their disgust at the decision of the world’s largest automaker on social networks, especially when they were (and still are) featured as a CarPlay partner on Apple’s website.
“Developing a safer and more secure in-car smartphone connectivity service which better matches individual vehicle features is exactly the value and advantage an automaker can offer customers,” said Shigeki Terashi, Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation. “We expect that many companies share our view and will participate in the industry SDL [SmartDeviceLink] collaboration.”
SDL was originally developed by Ford, who continues to use its own version of the software, called AppLink, as part of their larger SYNC 3 in-car platform. Ford recently announced at CES 2016 that they will be supporting Apple CarPlay its SYNC 3 equipped 2017 models and in 2016 models latter this year.
Toyota will be the first carmaker outside of Ford to adopt its SDL platform, and they will be the only top five automaker to not feature Apple’s CarPlay platform in their vehicles.
