Blue SDK Rides in Ford’s Android-based IVI System
OpenSynergy’s Bluetooth® stack kick-starts Android mass production at Ford
Berlin, November 18th, 2024. OpenSynergy’s Blue SDK, the industry-leading independent Bluetooth stack for automotive, has been selected by Ford Motor Company to provide the Bluetooth connectivity software for its first Android-based IVI system
Automotive OEMs have been faced with a challenging environment to navigate due to chip shortages and rising costs. Additionally, Bluetooth use cases within the car have rapidly grown to include handsets, headsets, gaming controllers, location-based keyless entry, audio streaming, video streaming, device location for charging, and zonal control, not to mention brand-new use cases facilitated by Low Energy Audio adoption, such as Auracast® Broadcast audio.
“For nearly a decade, Ford has deployed Blue SDK for the Bluetooth connectivity in its cars. We are pleased to contribute to Ford’s initiatives on Android as our goal is to help our partners to realize their own unique strategies for Bluetooth”, explains David Baum, Director of Wireless Technologies at OpenSynergy, Inc. “Especially in times of volatile chip supply and the fast-paced adoption of new use cases, OpenSynergy’s Bluetooth solution gives Ford the needed flexibility.”
Ford brought up the Blue SDK Bluetooth stack on a new chip within hours instead of weeks, and with Blue SDK’s reference applications, they built a proof-of-concept quickly and easily, reusing 100% of that for the production release, and achieved their goal to integrate it on their new Android-based IVI platform. Blue SDK has become central to the strategy to facilitate Bluetooth beyond the IVI system and is enabling to innovate and support new use cases as well as lay the foundation to extend to multiple Bluetooth controllers, enabling Ford to remain versatile and execute an aggressive strategy for Bluetooth in-car connectivity.
OpenSynergy’s Blue SDK offers years of proven interoperability achieved for previous IVI systems produced by Ford and its suppliers, and has established as the automotive market leader with 350 million vehicles deployed worldwide. The high level of control over all aspects of the Bluetooth stack and its behavior allows automotive OEMs to quickly make changes to the functionality of the stack and support advanced features, such as CarPlay®. Portability across multiple any brand of HCI Bluetooth controller, operating systems, architectures, and use cases, ultimately provides faster results while reducing costs and great flexibility in Ford’s hardware supply.
Blue SDK also helps eliminate unnecessary Bluetooth Qualification efforts for as it is qualified as a software component with the Bluetooth SIG, independent of the controller or application. This qualified, building-block-style approach gives Ford a remarkable head start, and they can trust OpenSynergy experts who continually assess the latest Bluetooth vulnerabilities and maintain up-to-date qualifications with the Bluetooth SIG.
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