Honda News: Honda Readies Their Ford SYNC Competitor

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

July 2, 2012

While most automakers like Ford, Toyota, and General Motors have been putting a larger focus on infotainment systems, Honda has been playing it safe.

Compared to the current crop of infotainment systems, Honda's system shows its age. The navigation and audio sources are somewhat severely dated. That will be changing for 2013.

Wired's Autopia reports that Honda is readying a new infotainment system called Hondalink that will first appear in the Fit EV, due out sometime in July. After the Fit EV, HondaLink will be in the new 2013 Accord. Honda representatives say they don't know if the system will utilize a cellular modem or work through a smartphone. This is due to Honda moving many of its connected services away from satellite data.

Honda's first move of connected services was at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, where Honda announced its partnership with Aha Radio. Aha Radio allows owners of Android and iOS devices to access thousands of streaming audio feeds that can be played on the head unit.

Source: Autopia

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

I still think Honda is making a mistake here by putting this into a limited group of cars, they should do their whole product line and get this going sooner rather than later. Role it out car by car, but plan to have it out to all cars within 6 months.

[FAPTurbo]

I'm interested to see how well they do. Honda's in a precarious position of potentially having its brand new product being a generation behind the competition.

[G. David Felt]

I'm interested to see how well they do. Honda's in a precarious position of potentially having its brand new product being a generation behind the competition.

Very true, if they do not move the needle, I think they will loose customers in numbers.