Sporting his Apple Inc. AAPL Watch in an interview with Re/code, Ford Motor Company F CTO Raj Nair indicated that there is room for the auto company to work closely with Apple and Google Inc GOOG in developing car software.
Yet, the CTO strongly indicated that Ford would play the lead role by saying, "We want to make sure that you are not pushed into a decision on a $40,000 car based on your $200 smartphone."
In its next version, Ford's main system, SYNC, will operate on BlackBerry Ltd BBRY's QNX. The software, however, will include new apps and functionality to interface with both Google's Android Auto and Apple's CarPlay. Those systems will be secondary to SYNC.
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Earlier this year, Ford opened a Silicon Valley Research and Innovation Center led by a former Apple engineer. The company plans to have 125 software and user experience engineers, as well as business development, IT and marketing positions by the end of 2015.
Year-to-date, Ford gained 2 percent. The stock has been stable over the past 52 weeks, trading in a $5 range between $13.26 and $18.12.
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