Ford and Toyota establish SmartDeviceLink Consortium for in-vehicle apps

Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Company are forming SmartDeviceLink (SDL) Consortium, a non-profit organisation working to manage an open source software platform with the goal of giving consumers more choice in how they connect and control their smartphone apps on the road.

SDL provides consumers easy access to smartphone apps using voice commands and in-vehicle displays. Adopting the open source platform gives automakers and suppliers a uniform standard with which to integrate apps. SDL enables smartphone app developers to seamlessly integrate their app functions with in-vehicle technology such as the vehicle display screen, steering wheel controls and voice recognition. With this new level of integration, drivers enjoy their favourite apps on the road in an enhanced, user-friendly way.

SDL technology is based on Ford's contribution of its AppLink software to the open source community in 2013. Ford AppLink software is currently available on more than five million vehicles globally. Toyota plans to commercialise a telematics system using SDL around 2018. Popular apps such as Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, AccuWeather and others are already available to Ford AppLink users.