One of the more interesting categories of CES’ past was the smart car. The idea behind it was that everything you have on your smartphone could be accessed while you’re behind the wheel. It’s incredibly promising and Ford is kicking off CES 2013 with a new open source SDK and developer program.
After a few years of trying to get the smart car right, Ford is finally opening smart car development to the masses with the Ford Developer Program. The program will offer an open source SDK that will help developers build the future of connected apps for cars that can be controlled via an iOS or Android device.
The Next Web reports that Ford is currently looking for developers to work on apps in the following categories:
As expected, these are the kind of apps that would be most used by the average car owner. The apps must also be fully voice controlled using Ford’s Sync software for safety’s sake. There’s already a number of apps that fall into these categories like Google maps or Pandora, but developers will inevitably come up with some genius apps now that development has opened to all.
As part of the announcement, Ford also announced nine new apps for current Sync-enabled Ford vehicles according to The New York Times. These apps include The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Aha Radio, Rhapsody Radio, Amazon Cloud Player, Glympse and more.
Ford is also opening up development to drivers who have good ideas on how to improve the driving experience, but don’t have any formal education in development. The company will direct these people to jacAPPS, a developer contracted by Ford that will bring these ideas to the dashboard.
Interested developers can hit up the Ford Developer Program at its official Web site.