Report: Ford’s Jim Farley responds to MyFord Touch system’s poor reception

Ford’s latest infotainment system collaboration with Microsoft and Sony, called MyFord Touch, has had a little of a rough start. Its concept was unique and appeared to be very clever on paper. Though when it first came out, Ford’s MyFord Touch was widely cited for being poorly executed, slow, and confusing. In response specifically to a report by Consumer Reports, Ford’s global marketing chief, Jim Farley, has reportedly said that he will “stay on the case,” according to AutomotiveNews.

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“We have an obligation to listen to feedback and do everything we can,” Farley reportedly said. “Ford will devote whatever resources are required to make the system more usable. We want to be the best at it even if it means we have to improve the usability forever.”

Specifically, Consumer Reports released an article, “Why the MyFord Touch control system stinks,” and CR’s Eric Evarts wrote that the magazine “wouldn’t recommend dealing with the frustrations of MyFord Touch on a daily basis even to an adversary.”

More recently, to help combat the poor reception, Ford released a series of software updates for 2013 models and about 300,000 update kits for other models with previous MyFord Touch systems.

Consumer Reports also apparently reported about the results of the updates, in which the publication said that the software upgrade did little to fix the systems problems. They said that the buttons are hard to distinguish, the voice commands are odd, and the screens are too cluttered on smaller models.

“According to our consumers, 56 percent say technology was an important part of their buying a Ford, and that’s significantly higher than other brands,” Farley concluded. “There are functional benefits you get from the system that you wouldn’t get if you didn’t buy a car with MyFord Touch or MyLincoln Touch.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: AutomotiveNews