July 24, 2026 - Ford Changes Course For Mapping

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for July 24, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

A few years ago, Ford completely revamped its strategy for infotainment software, following many other automakers to switch from developing its own in-house stack to using the Google-developed Android Automotive. Like the systems used by GM, Volvo, Honda, Nissan, and others, the Ford Digital Experience uses Google Automotive Services, including Maps, Assistant, and the Play Store running on top of an automotive-optimized version of Android. 

With the pending launch of Ford's Universal Electric Vehicle platform, Ford is shifting gears again and going back to an in-house developed infotainment software stack. However, this platform will be the first in the industry to utilize Apple Maps as its core navigation system. The UEV software team is using the new MapKit for Automotive software development kit. As with other EVs that utilize Google services, the embedded Apple Maps will incorporate an EV routing system for charging on road trips. It's unclear how well this system will work since Ford is the first to use it. However, since it's running natively in the vehicle, Ford can potentially incorporate other signals such as battery state of charge, past driving style, weather, traffic, and terrain to optimize the charging recommendations and provide automatic preconditioning to optimize charging performance. While Ford is using Apple Maps, they are not running CarPlay Ultra, but will have support for CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone projection. 

In addition to routing, the next-generation BlueCruise hands-free driving assist will also utilize the data from Apple Maps for geofencing and lane guidance. The current BlueCruise, which is in production on multiple Ford and Lincoln vehicles, uses maps from Here. The BlueCruise, which will eventually also have versions with hands-off/eyes-off capability, is being developed by Ford's Latitude AI unit. 

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